Associated Press

Dhaka, May 8:

Bangladesh will set fixed gas prices for foreign investors wanting to set up gas-based industrial plants in the country in an effort to attract greater overseas investment, a news report stated today.

The reform will eliminate the practice of protracted government negotiations that foreign companies have in the past been forced to undergo before establishing new plants, the New Age newspaper reported.

“We will prepare a uniform gas pricing model for foreign investors. If any investor wants to set up gas-based plants, he will have to follow the model,” energy minister AKM Mosharraf Hossain was quoted as saying by the newspaper. “Contracts on long-term gas supply will be signed with foreign investors on the basis of the model,” he said, without setting a timeframe for the reforms.

Hossain said foreign investors have recently expressed interest in setting up gas-based plants in Bangladesh but the projects are often delayed by negotiations over gas prices that take “too much time.” India’s business conglomerate Tata Group plans to invest $2 billion over the next two years in steel, power and fertilizer plants in Bangladesh, while Microsoft Corp’s billionaire co-founder Paul Allen plans to pour $1.6 billion into power and fertilizer plants.

It was not clear if their investments would be accepted under the new gas pricing model.