A bilateral meeting on power was held on Tuesday between State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid and a delegation of the World Bank (WB) at the ministry’s conference room.
Vice President of the World Bank’s South Asia Region Martin Raiser led the World Bank delegation and discussed various issues of mutual interest.
Nasrul Hamid talked about achievements, expectations and challenges in the power and energy sector.
He said that in the future electric vehicles and hydrogen power will contribute to the power and energy sector.
The World Bank can contribute to preparing hydrogen policy and make stakeholders interested in electric vehicles, the state minister said.
Seeking cooperation of the World Bank for developing Bangladesh Power Management Institute to international standards, he said it was needed to enhance partnership with the World Bank to boost wind power capacity, transmission and distribution system.
Nasrul said renewable energy, captive power, climate change, global energy crisis, solar irrigation pumps, lithium batteries, hydropower, regional power trade, net metering and rooftop solar, green building, electricity and efficient and cost-effective use of energy, oil refineries and land based LNG terminals were discussed.
Regarding the World Bank’s financing, he requested the vice president not to waste time financing the projects.
Expressing his happiness to work with Bangladesh, World Bank Vice President Martin Raiser said skill development, regional cooperation and transmission systems are very promising sectors.
Expansion of renewable energy and exploring new areas of potential are making Bangladesh shine, he said.
The World Bank expressed its interest in efficiency improvement, renewable energy and power trade issues.
With World Bank financing, two projects related to the gas meter were approved, which will begin their work in 2023.
Six projects with World Bank’s financing in the power sector were going on.
Among others, Energy Division Senior Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain, Power Division Secretary Md Habibur Rahman, World Bank South Asia Regional Director (Infrastructure) Guangzhe Chen and acting country director Dandan Chen were present.