State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has urged World Bank to expedite its funding to projects in Bangladesh’s power and energy sector.

He made the request while holding a bilateral meeting today with visiting World Bank Vice President for South Asia Region, Martin Raiser, at the ministry, said a release of the ministry.

It was noted at the meeting that two projects for gas meters installation have been approved by World Bank – implementation of which will begin from January 2023. There are 6 projects in the power sector being funded by World Bank.

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Both sides discussed various issues of mutual interest during the meeting.

The state minister focused on achievements, expectations and challenges in power and energy at the meeting.

He said electric vehicles and hydrogen will contribute greatly to the power and energy sector in the future.

“World Bank can play a major role in formulating a policy on hydrogen energy and electric vehicles to encourage the stakeholders in the sector,” Nasrul Hamid noted.

He sought World Bank’s cooperation to turn Bangladesh Power Management Institute into an organization of international standard.

Nasrul Hamid said it is necessary to further strengthen the partnership with World Bank in capacity building of the entities in the power sector to deal with wind power, transmission and distribution systems.

A wide range of issues like renewable energy, captive power, climate change, global energy crisis, solar irrigation pumps, lithium batteries, hydropower, regional power trade, net metering and rooftop solar, green building, efficient and cost-effective use of electricity and energy, oil refineries, land-based LNG terminal also came up for discussion.

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The World Bank Vice President expressed his satisfaction in working with Bangladesh and said that the focus on capacity building, regional cooperation and implementation of different projects is very promising.

He said promotion of renewable energy and the exploration of new areas of potential investment are putting Bangladesh in focus.

The World Bank top executive expressed interest in issues related to efficiency improvement, renewable energy and cross border power trade.

Senior Secretary of Energy and Mineral Resources Department Md. Mahbub Hossain, Power Secretary of Md. Habibur Rahman, World Bank South Asia Regional Director (Infrastructure) Guangzhe Chen and Acting Country Director Dandan Chen were present during the meeting.