Delhi expects Dhaka's nod for $3b Tata plans

The lifting of the ban on Bangladeshi investment in India should pave the way for Tata's three billion dollar investment proposal in Bangladesh's steel, power and fertilizer sectors, India Commerce Ministry Officials said yesterday.
They said the investment proposal from Tata, one of India's biggest conglomerates, had been hanging fire for three years possibly because of India's ban on foreign direct investment from Bangladesh.
But now that the government has issued a notification withdrawing the ban, the expectation is here that Tata's mega project will receive a green signal from Dhaka, the officials said.
Bangladesh had contended that the ban on FDI was unfair, especially when Indian firms had been asking to invest in Bangladesh.
Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh is on record as saying that India cannot possibly hope that its companies' investment would be allowed in any country if there remains a ban on investment from that country in India.
Indian commerce ministry officials point out how the lifting of the ban on investment from Sri Lanka has helped Indian companies' in putting their money in the island nation.
They said the decision to withdraw the ban on FDI from Bangladesh was taken at the highest level of Indian government.
Meanwhile, Ramesh, during an interaction with journalists of “The Hindu” newspaper in Chennai, said, “It is unfortunate that we have not been able to develop our relationship to the level of making it (Bangladesh) our gateway to South East Asia”.
For this reason, India's decision to rebuild the Sitwe port in Myanmar at a cost of 120 million dollars on Build-Transfer-Use basis assumes significance as it will help provide trade connectivity for north eastern Indian states and provide an alternative route to link with South East Asia without transiting through Bangladesh, he said.