Foreign Policy Blogs

Bangladesh's Mutual Advantage Relationship With Int'l Powers Continues

The government of Bangladesh is working with its counterparts in Russia to put in a 2000 megawatt power plant in the district of Pabna.  The joint move was put into play yesterday after having been accepted as a feasible policy last May. The final deal will be signed by Sheikh Hasina during a state visit to Russia in April.

This deal secures for Bangladesh its first nuclear power plant, which is slated to be completed in 2018.  The price tag for the plant is estimated around $2 billion. Along with Russia, Bangladesh is slated to work with all the major nuclear power countries on peaceful use of  nuclear energy.  The fuel used for that nuclear energy will be provided by Russia.  In time, that is likely to become a large source of revenue, streaming outside and away from Bangladesh.

Bangladesh’s growing economy has stretched out its power utility infrastructure. Along with moves to purchase electricity from India, this new deal secures a long term outlet for Bangladesh’s mounting energy needs.   But of course, it’s quite likely the Russian government will enjoy more than its revenue from sourcing the necessary nuclear fuel.  No doubt prospecting rights for mineral deposits is a rather large part of the reason that Russia got involved in teh deal in the first place.

Time will tell, of course, whether this deal will remain sustainable.  Like time, the tide, incoming and swift, a few years out might  make moot the kinds of judgements we need to make about the political economy behind the value of the deal.  For now this deal should make domestic and foreign investment in Bangladesh a bit more apettizing.

 

Author

Faheem Haider

Faheem Haider is a political analyst, writer and artist. He holds advanced research degrees in political economy, political theory and the political economy of development from the London School of Economics and Political Science and New York University. He also studied political psychology at Columbia University. During long stints away from his beloved Washington Square Park, he studied peace and conflict resolution and French history and European politics at the American University in Washington DC and the University of Paris, respectively.

Faheem has research expertise in democratic theory and the political economy of democracy in South Asia. In whatever time he has to spare, Faheem paints, writes, and edits his own blog on the photographic image and its relationship to the political narrative of fascist, liberal and progressivist art.

That work and associated writing can be found at the following link: http://blackandwhiteandthings.wordpress.com