Industries minister Amir Hossain Amu on Tuesday said that entrepreneurs should leave the plan of establishing gas-based industries because of unsolvable gas crisis in the country. Entrepreneurs will have to move forward with electricity-based industrialisation plan, he said at a seminar where business leaders placed their demand for gas supply to industry on urgent basis, even, if necessary, by diverting from the household and transport sectors. The Bangladesh Chamber of Industries organised the seminar on challenges and opportunities of Bangladesh to become a middle-income country through industrialisation in its auditorium in Dhaka. ‘There will be no more gas. The crisis exists now and will continue. So you will have to leave the plan of gas-based industry,’ Amu said. The government itself is suffering from gas crisis and has been forced to shut down fertiliser factories, he said. On the other hand, the government has planned to produce more than 24,000 megawatt of electricity in next few years and businesses will get sufficient electricity supply, the industries minister added. Amu also said that entrepreneurs could apply for the unutilised land and loss-making factories of state-owned corporations to set up factories, if they want. In reply to a question over the role of industries ministry on industrialisation in private sector, he said, ‘Entrepreneurs need to go to at least 17 government offices, except industries ministry, for setting up a new factory which is ridiculous.’ All the process should be completed at one point, Amu added. International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh president Mahbubur Rahman said the government should stop gas supply to household and transport sectors right now and divert all resources to industries. There will be no problem if the government stops compressed natural gas supply to transport and liquid gas to household uses, he said adding that LPG will have to make available for households. Mahbub said the government should not afraid of public wrath in the consequence of such decision. Requesting the government for providing gas connection to the factories having demand note on urgent basis, he said otherwise, investors would get a wrong message. ‘You [the government] have promised to give connection to the factories having demand note and entrepreneurs made the investment. Now, the investors cannot run their factories in absence of gas,’ he said. Investors including foreigners will lose their confidence if such contradiction in government policies continues, Mahbub said. BCI president AK Azad wondered how the foreign investors would come to Bangladesh with investment where local investors were helpless without land and gas connection. There will be no place for the investors to keep confidence if the government breaks its promise to provide gas connection, he said. Azad, also a former FBCCI president, requested the industries ministry for allocating the unused industrial plot and closed factories under the state-owned entities to the private sector. ‘We have to replace machinery to make the closed factories operational within one year of getting allocation as the factories have all other facilities including utilities’ connection,’ he said. M Tamim, an energy expert and teacher at Petroleum Engineering Department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said the government should free the gas resources from electricity generation, household and transport sectors for industrial purpose. Contribution of the industrial sector to the economy should be increased for becoming a middle-income country, he said. Tamim said that industry should be number one priority in use of gas. Only 1,000 megawatts of electricity in industry can add $5 billion to the economy every year, he said. Tamim, also a former energy adviser to caretaker government, also suggested that the government increase the price of CNG to keep it parallel to petrol price and sourcing alternative fuel for electricity generation instead of gas. Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Zafrullah Chowdhury said that the government would have to increase investment significantly in developing skilled manpower and health sectors to achieve the target of becoming a middle-income country by 2021. Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Md Jashim Uddin, Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry adviser Manjur Ahmed, FBCCI director Monowara Hakim Ali, BCI vice-president Mustafa Azad Chowdhury Babu, former president of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh Jamal Uddin Ahmed, Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation chairman Mohammad Iqbal, among others, spoke at the seminar.
