Dhaka: Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Tuesday urged Chinese investors to invest more in Bangladesh.  

‘We really need Chinese investment for power sector. Bangladesh is a good destination for investment,’ he said while addressing a contract signing ceremony.

Bangladesh-China Power Company Limited (BCPCL) inked a $1.56 billion contract with a Chinese consortium at a city hotel for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of a 1,320MW coal-fired power plant to be set up near the Payra Sea Port in Patuakhali.

BCPCL is a 50-50 joint venture between the state-run North-West Power Generation Company of Bangladesh and China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation.

The EPC contractor is a consortium of China Energy Engineering Group Northeast No 1 Electric Power Construction Co Ltd or NEPC and China National Energy Engineering and Construction Co Ltd, China or CECC.

The Chinese consortium won the contract as lone bidder.

Dipak Kumar Dhali, company secretary of BCPCL, and Cai Ming, president of NEPC, and Chen Yuyu signed the contract on behalf of the respective parties.

The 660 MW first unit of the power plant at Payra is expected to supply electricity from June, 2019.

Six months later, the second unit of the same capacity would start power supply.

The EPC contractor will arrange $1.56 billion finance from the Chinese banking system as credit.

BCPCL is expecting to sell each unit of electricity from the plant at Tk 6.65 to the state-run Power Development Board, officials said. The company estimated the possible price of electricity considering the supply cost of coal up to the project site at $100 per tonne.

Prime minister's energy adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid and the ministry's parliamentary standing committee chairman Md Tajul Islam, principal secretary to the prime minister's office Md Abul Kalam Azad, power division secretary Monwar Islam, energy division secretary Nazimuddin Chowdhury, and Chinese ambassador at Dhaka Ma Mingqiang attended the contract signing ceremony among others.

Nasrul Hamid said that at least $40 billion investment would be required in power sector by 2030.

'We would offload shares of the successful power projects to raise funds,' he said.