Summit will get $115 million from the World Bank's Investment Promotion Facilitation Fund while $212 million will be raised through zero-coupon bonds, he told Reuters. The deal ensures a large part of financing for three projects expected to begin production in early 2013 of electricity costing less than 2 taka ($0.03) per kilowatt hour.
"This will remove the burden of blackouts from Bangladesh by 2013 and enable 2 percent of additional GDP growth above the usual 5.5 percent GDP growth, meaning we will achieve about 8 percent GDP growth," Aziz said.The government is working on a plan to generate 9,000 MW of electricity by 2015 to tackle power shortages that often stir public protests. The impoverished country faces a daily shortfall of 2,000 MW of electricity and more than 300 million cubic feet of gas, and the gap is widening.
Bangladesh, whose economy has grown on average by 6 percent since 2003, has seen power demand sharply outstripping supply, resulting in frequent cuts and economic losses estimated at nearly $1 billion a year.