Staff Reporter :
Frustrating over the safety and security measures for foreigners in Bangladesh, a Spanish company – Isoluxc Ingenietia – has pulled out its 41 foreign staff, including 26 Spanish nationals, from Bangladesh.
According to high officials of the Foreign Ministry, although countries like the UK, Australia, and Canada are still advising their citizens to maintain “high degree of caution” in their travel alerts, the Spanish Embassy in Dhaka officially has sent a letter to the Power Ministry regarding its decision to pull out it from power projects in Bangladesh.
Foreign nationals of some other countries are also following the same trend despite assurances by the government.
Simultaneously, the Spanish Embassy asked the Spanish company to follow its instruction to withdraw the foreign staff from the power projects until further order.
Admitting the Spanish Embassy’s instruction and pullout of its foreign staff by Isolux, managing director of state-owned Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh (EGCB) Mostafa Kamal told UNB that all the 38 foreign staff of the company gradually left the country.
Despite repeated assurances of adequate security for its staff, Isolux did not agree to keep their staff here. The other foreign nationals working for Isolux were from France, Bulgaria and Argentina. Kamal said Isolux was engaged as a contractor for its 335-MW power plant for which it signed agreement in 2012. “Some 80 percent of our project works have been completed and by November next all the remaining works were supposed to be completed. But, now things have become uncertain about timely completion of the project,” Kamal said. Two Spanish engineers of the same company, working for the under-construction 383-MW gas-fired combine-cycle Bibiyana south power project, left the country following the instruction of the Spanish Embassy, said a top official of the Power Development Board (PDB).
One Spanish official of Isolux, which has been working as contractor for a 150-MW power plant of the state-owned North West Power Generation Company (NWPGC), also left the country. Nearly 2,24,000 foreigners are in Bangladesh.
