BD-Nepal energy talks likely to get deferred

The proposed Bangladesh-Nepal energy dialogue is likely to get deferred by a few weeks due to Bangladesh's unwillingness to hold the talks in the middle of this month (November).

Officials at the Power Division of Bangladesh said they preferred not hold the meeting due to unforeseen busy schedules during the whole month.

The bilateral meeting, among other things, is expected to focus on the planned import of electricity from Nepal and the scopes for Bangladesh to invest in Nepal's power sector.

Earlier, the Nepalese government sent a formal proposal to the Power Division of Bangladesh to hold the secretary-level dialogue in Kathmundu on the 15th and 16th of this month (November).

However, the Power Division officials said on Sunday that they had sent a response to the proposal, requesting Nepal to reschedule the dialogue in late November or early December.

"We have requested Nepal to hold the dialogue on the last week of November or early December," a Power Division high official told the FE. "We have already sent a formal letter to them in this regard and now waiting for a response."

Earlier in August, the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to increase cooperation in the power sector and speed up the process of importing hydroelectricity from Nepal.

At that time, the two countries also agreed to form a Joint Working Group (JWG) co-led by joint secretaries of the concerned ministries of both countries and a Joint Steering Committee (JSC) co-led by the concerned secretaries of both the countries.

As per the agreement, both the JWG and JSC would sit together every year to discuss the bilateral energy issues.

Accordingly, Nepal earlier sent its proposal to the government of Bangladesh, expressing their interest to host the JWG and JSC meeting in the middle of this month.

Bangladesh has a plan to import 9,000 MW of electricity from the neighbouring countries by 2041. The country is already importing more than 1,100 MW of electricity from India.

At the same time, Bangladesh is also showing investment interest in hydropower projects in Nepal.

"We think both the issues of energy trading and hydropower investment would be discussed in the proposed meeting," said the Power Division official, who preferred not to be named.

Last year, Bangladesh signed an MoU with the Indian company GMR Energy to import 500 MW of electricity from Nepal.

The Indian firm is currently building a 900 MW Upper Karnali HPP in western Nepal.

Being a mountainous country with huge potentials in hydroelectricity, Nepal currently has a mega plan to produce 15,000 MW of hydropower in next 10 years.

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