South Asian Media Net
China offers Bangladesh $560m
Monday, May 31,2010
BEIJING: China has offered to lend Bangladesh $560 million to set up a fertiliser factory, a senior official said on Sunday. "China will give the loan from its concessionary window to build the Urea fertiliser factory in Sylhet, 280 kilometres (175 miles) northeast of capital Dhaka," said Musharraf Hussain Bhuiyan, secretary of the economic relations division at the finance ministry. The factory expected to be constructed by the end of 2014 will have a capacity to produce 1,750 tonnes of urea a day, the official told Reuters.
He said Bangladesh sought the loan at a recent joint economic commission meeting with China.
Beijing has agreed and conveyed the loan offer to the state-run Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC), the official said.
Bangladesh needs around 3.0 million tonnes of urea annually, of which 1.8 million tonnes is met through domestic production while the rest is imported, mainly from China, Tunisia, Australia and a number of Gulf countries.