DHAKA: A huge amount of money is going to be invested in a scheme for expansion of the state-sector mobile-phone service based on latest technology.

The project is already underway, involving about Tk 1,447 crore, equivalent to 211 million US dollars, official sources said.

The EXIM Bank of China has held out its offer to fund the project with this amount of money in soft loan.       

“Economic Relations Division of the government has already given its nod to the project funding,” one official told banglanews about the progress on the scheme.

The expansion drive for the state-owned Teletalk Bangladesh Limited has been taken up following keen interest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, an ERD source said.

Project will include different types of modern services, including third-generation (3G) technology.

The proposal for introducing 3G technology and expansion of 2.5G network under Teletalk was firstly placed at the Bangladesh-China Joint Economic Commission’s 12th meeting on July 28, 2009, the sources informed.

Several other project proposals were made from Bangladesh before and after the JEC meet to get finances from China, now considered an economic superpower.

During the visits of Bangladesh premier to China and China’s Vice-President to Bangladesh, several proposals for funds from China were tabled and discussed at high levels.

Among the proposals, the Chinese government selected the Teletalk expansion project of the ministry of telecommunications and offered Preferential Buyer’s Credit (PBC).

Mentioning the credit as soft loan, the authorities of China informed that the rate of interest on the loan would be 2 percent only, and the borrowed money has to be paid back in 20 years.

Authorities concerned were directed to enhance their actions on the project, the source informed.

BDST: 1830 HRS. SEP 24, 2010