UNB, Dhaka :
Cabinet Economic Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved the Industries Ministry’s proposal to renew Bangladesh’s contracts with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to import urea fertiliser under state-level arrangements.
A meeting of the Cabinet body, with its head Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the chair, gave the go-ahead to the Industries Ministry to renew the existing deals for next one year with the three Middle-Eastern countries.
Following the day’s approval, the fertiliser import contract will be extended for fiscal 2014-15, said Cabinet Division Additional Secretary Nurul Karim.
State-owned Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) is responsible to import the urea from abroad. The present BCIC’s contract with Saudi Arabia’s SABIC expires on February 28 while the agreement with Qatar’s Muntajat on May 31 and UAE’s FERTIL’s on June 30 this year.
In the contract renewal proposal, the Industries Ministry proposed to import 0.2-0.4 million metric tons of fertiliser from Saudi Arabia; 0.6-0.8 million tons from Qatar; and 0.2-0.3 million tons from the UAE for the fiscal 2014-15.
Bangladesh needs some 4.8 million metric tons of different types of fertiliser and the requirement of urea fertiliser is the highest 2.450 million metric tons.
Of the required urea, 1.1 million tons are locally produced while the remaining 1.3 million ton imported under state-level arrangements.
At present, the government has contracts with different countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE to import the urea fertiliser.
