Bangladesh
Environmental Technologies Sector Review
Definition and scale of sector
- Environmental products,
- Environmental services (utilities) and specialist consultancies,
- Energy production technologies
Why the sector was chosen in the West Midlands
- Significant economic growth potential worldwide led by global concerns over climate change,
- Diminishing resources and waste management.
- Diversification opportunity related to skills available within region and technology transfer from existing sectors. Identified by recent DTI work as a regional cluster
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Bangladesh Reality Check Annual Report 2007 - Sida - April 2008
The reality check initiative was started by Sida in 2007 with the overall goal to listen to and try to understand the perspectives of people living in poverty. In Bangladesh its focus lies on the national health and primary education sector programmes. The approach and methodology used in this study evolved from the efforts of finding methods to operationalise the two perspectives of the Policy for Global Development (poor people's perspective on development and the rights perspectives).
Source: SIDA
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A Clean Fuel to Boost Incomes - March 2008
As with other big cities in Asia, Dhaka suffers from high levels of pollution, much of it caused by vehicular traffic. This teeming city of more than 10 million people has roads that are noisy and busy, filled with buses, cars, "auto rickshaws," cycle rickshaws, and trucks.
Yet Dhaka in recent years has managed to cut pollution down drastically. Measured in particulate matter, pollution came down about 60% between 2001 and 2004, said Abdul Wadud, Managing Director, Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited (RPGCL).
Source: Asian Development Bank
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Power Sector in Bangladesh - A Report from UKTI - March 2008
Recognising the fact that electricity is a vital ingredient for socio-economic development, and one of the most important pre-requisites for attracting foreign direct and domestic investment, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) is placing significant focus on the development of its power infrastructure. In order to drive competition, the Government continues to design and implement various reform programmes and restructuring it along functional lines of generation, transmission, distribution and retail supply.
The Government's ultimate goal is electricity for all by 2020. To achieve this goal, it is estimated that an investment of $15bn minimum is required. Bangladesh have good reserves of gas and coal from which it can produce power for at least the next twenty to thirty years. At this stage, it is worth mentioning that the power crisis is a major issue right now. It is estimated that the chronic power outage in Bangladesh generally results in a loss in annual industrial output of about US$1 billion. Power is one major reason of the recent slow down of the country's GDP. Bangladesh's GDP growth will slow down to 6% - 6.2% in the current fiscal year (2007-08) from 6.5% of the previous fiscal, according to a World Bank forecast recently published. The forecast was made at a report titled "Global Economic Prospects 2007" released in Washington on 13th December 2006.
Source: UK Trade & Investment
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Environment Sector - A Report from UKTI - March 2008
As a result of continuos industrial growth, rapid urbanisation and use of chemicals in agriculture Bangladesh is now suffering from severe environmental degradation. A market of more than 140 million people and a growth rate of between 4-6% per capita combined with a number of environmental requirements Bangladesh's environment is under considerable pressure. Although the large informal sector ensures that significant recovery and recycling takes place, the rising use of toxic and non-biodegradable materials in the economy has made even the household waste stream a major problem for public health and the environment. In addition bio-diversity is being threatened and forests are gradually disappearing.
Although pressure from civil society has increased awareness of environmental issues and the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has enacted a series of environmental protection laws, the market for environmental goods and services remains under-developed.
Challenges Facing Post-flood Crop Sector Policy Perspectives from a Field Visit - October 2007
Bangladesh has experienced yet another severe flood this year. The flood affected 262 upazilas from 39 districts, most of them twice. The second flood receded when there was no further possibility of recovering the loss through replanting of aman paddy. So, the effect of the flood on food production for the affected households would be substantial.
According to the Department of Agriculture, the Flood has damaged 360 thousand ha of rice land completely, and 180 thousand ha partially. Assuming an average paddy yield of 3.0 t/ha, the total loss of rice production would be about 0.85 million tons.
Source: Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD)
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Bangladesh Gas Sector - Issues, Options and the Way Forward - August 2007
Bangladesh finds itself at a unique decision point. The country must move from an unacceptably low level of development to sustainable growth, along with a gross reduction in poverty. This task requires balancing between the use of domestic natural resources to monetize the economy, while risking excessively quick depletion of those resources. The key natural resource of the country is natural gas, which serves as the single guaranteed source of energy supply and feedstock for its chemical industry. It is also the single most powerful protection the country's fragile economy has against the extreme swings in energy prices experienced in the world in the new millennium. This study is focused entirely on the natural gas sector of the country (about 74% of commercial energy used by the country), thus only the marginal mention of oil (about 23% of commercial energy used), coal (about 3% of commercial energy used), and renewable energy sources. However, this should not be interpreted as neglecting these energy sources or viewing them as unimportant to the future of the country.
Source: Asian Development Bank
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Bangladesh Background and U.S Relations - August 2007 - Congresional research Service
Bangladesh the former East Pakistan gained its independence in 1971, following India's intervention in a rebellion against West Pakistan (currently called Pakistan.) Democratic elections in 1991 ended two decades of authoritarian rule in Dhaka. The Bangladesh National Party (BNP), which led the ruling coalition of the previous government, anf the leading opposition party, the Awami League (AL), traditionally have dominated Bangladesh politics. The BNP is led by former prime Minister Khaleda Zia while the AL is led by Sheikh Hasina
Source: Congressional Research Service
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Energy Sector Report - January 2007
Bangladesh has significant reserves of gas and coal, although coal deposits in particular remain untapped. There is no oil and other than biomass, and a single hydro project, and limited trials of pv panels, renewable energy sources are not used.
A lack of vision and action by recent governments, combined with corruption, has restricted the development of energy resources and infrastructure, and thereby business and investment opportunities for foreign companies in the sector (and in the economy at large).
Source: British High Commission
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Power Sector Report - January 2007
Electricity is recognised in Bangladesh as a vital ingredient for socio-economic development, and one of the most important pre-requisites for attracting both foreign direct and domestic investment.
However, sustained economic growth (of 5% per annum since the mid-1990s) and the dearth of new power plant projects since 2001 (only 80MW was added to generation capacity in the past 5 years) has widened the gap between supply and demand beyond 1500MW. A power crisis is ongoing, with major load shedding events increasingly common.
Source: British High Commission
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People's Republic of Bangladesh: Promotion of Private Sector Participation in the Power Sector - December 2006
During the Country Programming Mission from 2 to 19 July 2006, the Government of Bangladesh (the Government) requested the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to provide assistance for promoting private sector participation to support sustainable power sector development.
ADB conducted the Fact-Finding Mission (the Mission) from 5 to 11 September 2006 to reach an understanding with the Government on the impact, outcome, outputs, cost estimates, financing, implementing arrangements, and the consultants' terms of reference of the
proposed technical assistance (TA).1
Source: Asian Development Bank (ADB)
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