The export loan for the nuclear construction project in Bangladesh was endorsed by the Russian government at a regular cabinet meeting. Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev said that export loans were “a powerful tool for the promotion of our interests abroad, which is done not for the sake of entering other markets, but to earn money; actually, it is an investment in domestic industries.”
A spokesman for the Cabinet said that the nuclear station in Bangladesh was expected to bring up to 8.4 billion US dollars in taxes for Russia. “The nuclear construction project will have a strong social and economic impact on the country. It will trigger an increase in Russia’s hi-tech exports, bring long-term orders for more than 100 Russian industrial companies, involve over 12,000 Russian engineers, create new jobs, and generate up to 8.4 billion US dollars in taxes over the project life cycle,” says the report.
Bangladesh plans to repay the loan over 30 years, starting from March, 15, 2027, with a 10-year grace period. Repayments will be made in equal installments twice a year, on March,15 and September,15. The loan will be drawn down in 2017–2024. Russia’s Vnesheconombank and Bangladesh’s Sonali Bank Limited will act as agent banks. The Russian-Bangladeshi loan agreement is expected to be signed later this year, in late July or early August.
The full-fledged construction of Rooppur, the first nuclear station in Bangladesh, will start in 2017 with Russia’s involvement, said Ali Zulquarnain, Chairman of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission. “We expect the preparatory phase to finish in 2016,” he said in June at the Atomexpo Forum in Russia. Groundworks for Units 1 and 2 are to be completed by the end of the year. “Next year we will achieve another milestone – we will begin concreting the foundation,” Ali Zulquarnain said.
Russia will also train about 3,000 people who will work at Rooppur NPP, said Muhammad Shawkat Akbar, Rooppur Project Director. “As soon as the loan agreement is signed, 1,056 people out of them will be sent stepwise to Russia for training. About 500 non-technical employees are expected to be trained in Bangladesh by Russian experts,” he said.
Rooppur’s two 1,200 MW units are being constructed with Russia’s involvement. The Russian-designed station will be built on the bank of the Ganges, 160 km away from the capital Dhaka.
In mid-December last year, Rosatom was awarded a general contract for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh. The construction contract was signed in accordance with the 2011 Russian-Bangladeshi framework agreement on cooperation in the nuclear power plant construction in Bangladesh.
