The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff reporter

Japan and Bangladesh are going to sign US$1.6 million loan agreement next week to build the 360MW Haripur Power Plant, said Ambassador of Japan in Dhaka Masayuki Inoue yesterday.

He also expected that Bangladesh would be able to reduce its system loss up to 10 per cent within the next five years by successful introduction of Total Quality Management (TQM) projects.

"I am going to sign the exchange of note with the Bangladeshi government next week for the loan project. This will assist the government to reach its target to produce an additional 5,000MW electricity within five years," said the Japanese envoy.

He was addressing a workshop in the capital on Total Quality Management (TQM) of Power Sector of Bangladesh, which is a technical cooperation project of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Citing the successful TMQ project in Japan, he expected a positive and effective result from its implementation in Bangladesh as well. In Japan, system loss was reduced up to 15 per cent within 10 years after the first TQM introduction in 1950's, he mentioned.

According to him, distribution and transmission loss now in Bangladesh is about 23 per cent. "Following the successful implementation strategies in Japan, I expect 10 per cent loss reduction might be accomplished in Bangladesh with in next 5 years," said the Japanese Ambassador.

"This much system loss reduction can be equivalent to a construction of a new power plants of 500 MW capacity," he further added.

"Strengthening Management and Performance Standard in Power Sector of Bangladesh through Promotion of TQM," is a technical cooperation project of JICA under implementation in Bangladesh since December 2006.

Experts from the JICA stated, the TQM activities will be disseminated and will be developed in the appropriate and sustainable way by the establishment of training system and development of trainers by the introduction and advice of the expert.

Secretary of Power and Energy Dr, M Fouzul Kabir Khan attended the workshop where four-research papers were presented.