The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase on Wednesday approved two proposals including one for appointing a contractor to strengthen the runway and taxiway of Shah Amanat International Airport in Chattogram with an estimated cost of Tk 472.75 crore. The approval came from a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase held at Bangladesh Secretariat on Wednesday with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Kamal said the committee approved the proposal from M/S Mir Akhter-CAMCE Joint Venture as it emerged as the lone responsive bidder recommended by the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC). The Finance Minister said the project was first approved by the ECNEC on January 2 last year since it was a preferred project of the Prime Minister as she was thinking for long time on how to strengthen the infrastructures of this airport since it was a hub.
He said once this project is implemented, wide-body aircraft like Airbus 380 and Boeing 777 would be able to take off and land safely in this airport without any hassle since its taxiway and runway would be strengthened. The meeting also approved a proposal from the Energy Division to appoint a consulting firm to provide technical cooperation to the project on increasing energy efficiency and conservation capacity operations by the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority (SREDA).
Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. Tokyo, Japan got the contract as the first responsive bidder with a value of Tk 59.76 crore. Regarding his breakfast meeting at the British High Commissioner’s residence with the British Business Group earlier this morning, Kamal said the UK is the 3rd largest RMG importer from Bangladesh and the British businesses have expressed their interest to work in the country’s power, railway and education sectors.
Turning to the procurement of the Electronic Fiscal Devices (EFDs) by the National Board of Revenue (NBR), he said the Board has already purchased some 10,000 EFDs while the rest of 90,000 EFDs, of which the procurement proposal was approved recently, would be procured soon. He informed that the government still needs a million EFDs to go for a bigger VAT collection.
Replying to another question on the government’s strategy to realize the default loans, Kamal said if the exit-plan that the government has chalked out could work properly, then every businessman would benefit from it.
