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Bangladesh must have goal for accelerating economy |
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October 2, 2000
Dhaka (UNB) – The US is keen to provide its energy expertise to Bangladesh in making informed decisions about the best paths to pursue energy and power development, an American high official said here yesterday. Calvin Humphrey, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs in the US Department of Energy, made the offer as he addressed on the second day a workshop where donors, national and international experts and government officials are holding brainstorming sessions on ways of developing Bangladesh’s power and energy sector. “… but we recognize that final decisions must be made by Bangladeshis for Bangladeshis with a goal of accelerating the rate of economic growth and bringing higher living standards for your people,” he said. Humphrey told the meet that Bangladesh has a tremendous opportunity as it develops its energy resources to learn from the experiences of other countries-–both what they have done right and what wrong. The three-day workshop on Bangladesh Power Sector Reform has been organised by the government and the World Bank under the sponsorship of Energy Sector Management Programme, New Zealand Trade Development Corporation and United States Agency for International Development. Participating in the workshop on the second day, Humphrey underlined the need for strong and independent regulators to maximize investment in the energy sector and reduce system loss. “To obtain the desired investment and competition, it is absolutely indispensable to have independent regulators with the expertise and resources to do their job.” Independence, as Humphrey defines, means a staff and a budget that are independent of political influence. “That is the only way to ensure fair, transparent and non-discriminatory treatment of all market players.” He stressed competition among electricity generators so the price of power to consumers is affordable and the price of power to industry allows production to be internationally competitive. The US deputy assistant secretary cited creation of Power Grid Company of Bangladesh as an important step towards promoting competition since an autonomous grid company would help ensure non-discriminatory access to generators. “But unless there is complete unbundling of resources through the divestiture assets by transmission owners or of transmission assets by generation owners, independent regulatory oversight will be necessary to ensure that favoritism does not occur.” Focussing on the US-Bangladesh energy partnership, Humphrey spoke of USAID’s South Asian Regional Initiative (SARI) under which the aid agency will provide USD 30 million over the next ten years for training and technical assistance in development and regulation of the natural gas and power sectors. An agreement to this effect was signed here by USAID and Bangladesh government during President Clinton’s March 20 visit. SARI also aims to promote cross-border cooperation in energy and mobilise private capital for investment in the energy and power sectors. The US deputy assistant secretary said USAID had funded a successful partnership between the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) and the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (REB). For almost a quarter of a century, he said, the agency has been working together with Palli Bidyut Samities (PBSs) in an effort to bring affordable electricity to the rural population. Earlier in the day, the workshop highlighted a global perspective of power sector reform and restructuring as well as experience of India, Malaysia, Chile and New Zealand. It also dealt with legal and regulatory arrangement in electricity and gas industries in Australia and Canada. |