Muhith plans to use foreign currency from reserves on mega projects

Finance Minister AMA Muhith believes Bangladesh Bank's huge foreign currency reserves can be used on the government's mega projects.

"Our reserves are so high. ... How to use this reserve? ... We are doing some thinking about this. Bangladesh Bank has also given some ideas," he told reporters on Wednesday at the Secretariat after a meeting of the cabinet committee on government purchase.
 
Sharing his 'ideas', the minister said, "I can take loans from (the reserves). For mega projects, for big projects. More loans for the megaprojects, this can be one of the ways. The mechanism for that will have to be figured out."
 
He said he had been thinking about how Bangladesh's own resources could be used in better ways. "We should make use of the resources that we have. One of them is our reserves, huge reserves... its a resource. We should use that."
 
The central bank's foreign currency reserves crossed the $31 billion mark on Sep 1. This is good enough to clear import bills for the next nine months, going by an estimated monthly requirement of $3.5 billion.
 
The government currently has 10 mega projects that it has fast-tracked and prioritised.
 

They include the Padma multipurpose bridge, Payra seaport, Sonadia deep seaport, Rooppur nuclear power plant, Matarbarhi coal-fired power plant, Maitree super thermal power plant and an LNG terminal.

The finance minister has made separate allocations for most of the mega projects in the national budget for the 2016-17 fiscal.