Policy Research Group   - Strategic Insight: Dhaka signs $1b credit deal with Delhi:

Dhaka signs $1b credit deal with Delhi:
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editor on 08 August, 2010 02:15:00
 
The Daily Star online
Dhaka penned a $1 billion credit agreement on Saturday with New Delhi to finance
several projects in Bangladesh.
Economic Relations Department (ERD) Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and
Chairman and Managing Director of the Exim Bank of India TCA Ranganathan signed
the deal on behalf of their respective sides.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith and his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee, who
arrived in Dhaka in the afternoon on a brief visit, witnessed the signing
ceremony at the state guesthouse Jamuna in Dhaka.The repayment for the loan is
20 years (including a grace period 5 years).
The line of credit will be utilised for implementation of projects to be
identified and approved by the government of Bangladesh.
It may be recalled that in the joint communiqué issued on January 12 this year
during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India, the government in New
Delhi agreed to extend a line of credit of $1 billion to the government in Dhaka
through the bank for a range of projects, particularly in the transport and
communication sector.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=25191
2. Don't sign loan deal with Indian bank, BNP asks govt: The Daily Star Aug 7
The main opposition BNP yesterday asked the government not to sign any loan
agreement with Exim Bank of India.
“Countrymen knew that the Indian government would provide the loan. But now
Bangladesh is going to sign an agreement with Exim Bank of India for a loan of 1
billion dollars, which is disgraceful,” the party said in a statement read out
at a press conference at the chairperson's Gulshan office.
The loan deal is scheduled to be inked today with Indian Finance Minister Pranab
Mukherjee in attendance.
BNP claimed Bangladesh is going to take the loan with 1.75 percent interest
while such loan is available from any multinational bank at only .25 percent
interest.
Former minister MK Anwar, also a member of BNP standing committee, read out the
statement.
Party standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan, Vice- chairman Shamser Mobin
Chowdhury and chairperson's adviser Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury were, among
others, present at the conference.
Replying to a question, the leaders said they would protest the loan agreement
but did not say if they would announce any programme to that end.
“The government is getting the loan from the Indian bank with an interest rate
seven times higher than that from any multinational bank or donor agency,”
Anwar said in the statement.
Such agreement will go against our national interest, he added.
He also said that taking out Indian loan, Bangladesh will implement 17 projects
in Indian interests. Roads, railways and land ports will be developed for India
to use Bangladesh as corridor.
The BNP leader said the country has gained nothing since Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina's visit to India. He demanded that all treaties signed between the two
countries be made public.  India is engaged in a war against its disadvantaged
masses. The conscious citizens of Bangladesh cannot accept the government's
decision to give India corridor, which would amount to joining India's internal
war, observed the opposition party.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=149746
3. Fish stock set to crash
Dhaka:  Some 44,000 fishing boats and 147 trawlers skim the Bay of Bengal every
day with sea-floor-scraping nets that scoop up everything in its way, and
experts fear this over-fishing by about 50 percent will be "disastrous" for fish
stocks.
Fishermen and trawling companies agree that their catches are declining. "Fish
living at the bottom of the sea, or demersal stock, is deteriorating," said a
senior official of a commercial trawling firm, seeking to remain unnamed.
"We caught 4-5 tonnes of demersal fish a day in 2002-03. But the quantity of
catches has dropped to 2-2.5 tonnes a day now."
The official also said shrimp catches have also declined on each trip.
Of 21,433 mechanised boats counted, 83 percent are fishing illegally, according
to officials.
The Bay  of Bengal has 65 commercially important fish species and 36 shrimp
species. However, Bangladesh lacks any survey vessels to assess fish stocks.
Md Rashed-Un-Nabi, director of the Institute  of Marine Sciences and Fisheries,
said catch per net has dropped, indicating that marine stock is falling,.
He studied fishing boats in 1985 and found that 8.2-130.4kg fish could be caught
with a single net. But by 2005, the catch per net had dropped to 1.43-25kg.
"The results of overexploitation may be disastrous from the resource
sustainability point of view," he
said.http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=149731