The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Masayuki Inoue, Ambassador of Japan to Bangladesh and Md Aminul Islam Bhuiyan, Secretary, Economic Relations Division (ERD), Ministry of Finance will sign Exchange of Notes at 10:00 am today (Tuesday) at ERD on Japanese loan assistance of 35,996 million yen (Tk 21 billion or US$324 million) for three projects, a news release from the Embassy of Japan in Dhaka said yesterday.

Following the signing of the Exchange of Notes, Yasuo Fujita, Chief Representative in Dhaka, Japan Bank for International Cooperation

(JBIC) and M. Mejbahuddin, Additional Secretary, Economic Relations Division, Ministry of Finance also signed the loan agreements.

Under the agreements, the Government of Japan will provide the loan assistance to the Government of Bangladesh through the JBIC for implementation of the following three projects:

New Haripur Power Plant (360 MW) Development Project (Part I) at 17,767 million yen (Tk 10 billion or US$160 million), Dhaka--

Chittagong Railway Development Project at 2,916 million yen (Tk 7 billion or US$116 million) and Small Scale Water Resources Development Project at 5,313 million yen (Tk 3 billion or US $48 million).

The conditions of the loan are the most generous. The interest rate is 0.01 per cent per annum and the repayment period is 40 years inclusive of 10-year grace period for the three loans.