India has offered to buy 1,000 megawatt (MW) electricity from Bangladesh as part of its ambitious plan to procure 30,000 MW from its neighbours including Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka in next 10 years. The offer was made during the visit of union minister for commerce Jairam Ramesh to Bangladesh and his meetings with senior commerce and energy and power officials there.
As a part of the plan, Indian companies have already got permission to install power plants in Nepal to generate 1,400 MW power to import back to India. India-Bangladesh relations, particularly in economic cooperation, have grown particularly during the last one year. This included the notification of duty-free export of eight million pieces of apparel items from Bangladesh to India.Bangladesh has so far exported three million pieces and the rest would be exported by next year to add $60-70 million to Bangladesh's export earnings from India. India offered to import apparels in large quantities in April last year as a gesture on becoming the new chair of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). India reduced its negative list of products for Bangladesh and other LDCs under SAFTA from 744 items to 480 items effective from January this year.
India also allowed 50 out of the 101 items Bangladesh requested for special consideration from India to offer dutyfree market access.Indian exports to Bangladesh increased three times during the last 7 years to $3.3 billion while Bangladesh's exports to India rose seven times to $350 million. Indian is also pushing for two routes - Kolkata-Dhaka-Guwahati and Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala - which may help Bangladesh earn a whopping $1.2 billion annually.
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