Dhaka: The Tata Group on Monday announced it was suspending its plan to invest $3 billion in Bangladesh due to delay in getting government approval.
The investment in steel, power and coal sectors will be kept pending till general elections in the country next year. “We are extremely disappointed and frustrated. We thought the projects were good for the country's economy, for the people and the balance of payment," said Alan Rosling, executive director of Tata Sons.
"We are suspending the proposed three-billion dollar investment plan," said Rosling, who held talks over the weekend with Bangladeshi ministers and officials.
The planned investment might be done on projects elsewhere. "If the government does not make a decision, we can't wait. We have been waiting for ten weeks to the government response,” said Rosling, who met Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rehman, Industries Minister Matiur Rehman Nizami and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister on Sunday.
The group had offered to set up a 2.4-million tonne steel plant, two power plants, a coalmine and a fertiliser plant.
"There will be no further work on the plan. We have put in resources here though and so we will wait for the new government to come," said Manzer Husain, Tata’s resident director in Dhaka, after meeting Mahmmudur Rahman, chief of Bangladesh's Board of Investment.
"After the new government comes after eight to nine months we will then assess our position and decide," Husain said. "The ball is mostly with the government now, but it has been frustrating as it has been a long wait."
Tata had earlier set May 31 as deadline for a decision by the Dhaka government. Government leaders have said a consensus was needed among the country's political parties for approving the plan, which would have been the single largest direct foreign investment for Bangladesh since its birth in 1971.
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