The cabinet committee on government purchases on Wednesday in a meeting approved a proposal for importing 3.60 lakh MMBtu liquefied natural gas at Tk 1,004.69 crore. The price for per MMBtu LNG will be $29.70, said cabinet division additional secretary Zillur Rahman Chowdhury in a virtual briefing. M/S Vitol Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore will supply the LNG to Petrobangla, he said He also said the price of per MMBtu LNG was at least two dollar higher than the last purchase of LNG. The committee meeting presided over by finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal also approved a proposal from the Ministry of Food for procuring 50,000 tonnes of wheat from M/S Agrocorp International Pte Ltd, Singapore, at Tk 168.09 crore with the price of per tonne costing $390.92.
Two more proposals — the procurement of a vessel from Karnafuly Ship Builders Ltd at Tk 119.65 crore by Mongla Port Authority and appointment of the National Development Engineers Ltd as the contractor of the upgrading Elenga-Hatikumrul-Rangpur Highway at Tk 151.96 crore — were also approved. The finance minister also presided over a meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affairs and approved three proposals. One of these is The Development, Agreement and Land Lease Agreement of the Bangladesh SEZ Ltd, a joint-venture company between Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority and Sumitomo Corporation of Japan on the development of 1,000 acres of land at Araihazar in Narayangang for Japanese investors.