October 1, 2023
Campaign Report
Demanding a Green and Just BRI in Bangladesh
China organized the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) from 17-18 October 2023 to celebrate the first decade of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The forum is a Summit of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was initiated in 2013 by the Chinese President and completed more than 3,000 projects amounting nearly $1 trillion over the past decade. Bangladesh is one of the key member countries of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor under BRI and a major recipient of Chinese loans and projects. China is also interested in getting Bangladesh into the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Security Initiative (GSI) and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI).
In October 2016, Bangladesh and China signed 26 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) amounting to $40 billion in loans, of which $26 billion under BRI and $14 billion for joint projects. So far, China has given $4.5 billion as loans, in addition to $7.7 billion in investments. However, Chinese companies got contracts of $22.94 billion for constructing infrastructures, including 12 highways, 21 bridges and 27 power plants in the same period. Over 670 Chinese companies have invested in different sectors of Bangladesh. More than 25% of the investors in the Export Processing Zones (EPZ) are owned by Chinese nationals, and the amount has been increasing at 13.5% annually. A 783-acre special Chinese Economic Zone is also to be established in Chattogram. China Export and Import Bank (CHEXIM) financed $1,984 million for the Payra 1320 MW Coal Power Plant (Phase-I) owned by North-West Power Generation Company Limited (NWPGCL) and China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation (CMC). It also financed $1,687 million for the Patuakhali 1320 MW Coal Power Plant owned by Rural Power Company Limited (RPCL) and Norinco International (China). BOC financed $78.31 million for the Saidpur 150 MW HSD Power Plant owned by the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).
In the private sector, the Bank of China (BOC), China Construction Bank (CCB) and China Development Bank (CDB) jointly financed 1,759.07 million for the Banshkhali 1224 MW Coal Power Plant owned by S. Alam Group, SEPCO-III (China) and HTG Group (China). PowerChina invested $378 million in the Barishal 350 MW Coal Power Plant owned by Sinohydro Corporation (China) and ISO Tech Group (Bangladesh). In response to the global pressure to phase out coal, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared in September 2021 during the United Nations General Assembly that China would not develop any coal power plants abroad. Even then, CHEXIM is to finance $1,440 million for the Payra 1320 MW Coal Power Plant (Phase-II). CHEXIM has never replied to the appeal of BWGED, along with other organizations, which called for not to finance this devastating power plant. The over-reliance on Chinese finance has negative impacts on the foreign currency reserves. Bangladesh is currently facing serious shortage of foreign currency and struggling to pay installments of international credit, in addition to the capacity charges of the idle power plants. China-financed Payra Coal Power Plant is the largest receiver of the capacity charges, around $182 million per year. Other projects with low economic return may further weigh down the economy. The projects financed by China under BRI have serious allegations of violating Human Rights and environmental standards. Since 2016, 12 innocent villagers and laborers have been killed as they raised their demands for proper compensation and remunerations. Nobody has been tried for brutal killings. On the contrary, one of the villagers was taken to jail under the Digital Security Act (DSA) for raising the environmental problems of the project on social media. In June 2019, a serious clash spread out between Bangladeshi and Chinese workers at Payra Coal Power Plant, when a Bangladeshi laborer fell from the boiler and died. A Chinese laborer was killed in the clash. As a response to the clash, the power plant authority filed cases against more than 1,200 Bangladeshi laborers and sacked them from their jobs in the power plant. The poor laborers have neither been released from the cases nor gotten their jobs back till now. Laborers of Rupsha 800 MW LNG Power Plant also got criminal cases and lost their jobs. China is the largest financier and equipment supplier of renewable energy (RE) in the world, with the installation of 228 GW of utility-scale solar power in its territory, which is more than that of the rest of the world combined. It also invested $271 billion in 2023 for 210 GW of RE globally. In the last ten years, China invested $546 billion in RE, majorly in the developing world. Chinese companies are involved in developing solar and wind power plants in Bangladesh. However, the scale of Chinese investments is comparatively tiny and insufficient. It is also noticed that the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) generated by the RE projects financed or developed by Chinese companies is significantly higher. So, we demand for a green and equitable transition with social, environmental, cultural and economic justice in BRI investment to save the next generations and Mother Earth.