Originally posted in The Business Standard on 12 January 2022
As Bangladesh head towards becoming an economic power, the government should prioritise resolving the problems in the energy sector as adequate electricity is essential for development, the International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh (ICCB) said.
“Attention should be given to resolving high system losses, delays in completion of new plants, low plant efficiency, erratic power supply, electricity theft and shortages of funds for power plant maintenance,” it said.
The chamber made the recommendation in its editorial of its latest News Bulletin (Oct-Dec’ 2021 issue) published on Wednesday, reads a press statement.
Currently, Bangladesh’s GDP is $455 billion, which was only $6.2billion in 1971.
The ICCB said it is expected that the GDP will be $510 billion in fiscal year 22-23.
Bangladesh will need an estimated 34,000 MW of power by 2030 to sustain its economic growth of over 7%, the trade body added citing experts.
The country now has over 23,000 MW of installed power generation capacity with 100% coverage, but due to transmission weakness complaints of supply interruption can be heard frequently from many areas.
According to the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), the surplus in power generation is around 8,000 MW.
