Japan to provide 85,819m Japanese Yen to Bangladesh

For two projects, the Japanese government will provide Bangladesh a total of 85,819 million Japanese yen, or roughly $582 million.

In this context, the governments of Bangladesh and Japan signed “Exchange of Notes” and “Loan Agreements” today for the “Food Safety Testing Capacity Development Project” and the “Matarbari Ultra Super Critical Coal-Fired Power Project (VIII)” under the 45th Japanese ODA Loan Package (2nd batch).

The ‘Exchange of Notes’ and ‘Loan Agreements’ were signed on behalf of the Bangladeshi government by Md. Shahriar Kader Siddiky, Secretary, Economic Relations Division (ERD), Ministry of Finance.

SAIDA Shinichi, Ambassador of Japan in Bangladesh, signed the ‘Exchange of Notes’ and ICHIGUCHI Tomohide, Chief Representative, JICA Bangladesh Office, Dhaka signed the ‘Loan Agreements’ on behalf of the government of Japan.
 
The signing ceremony was held at NEC-2 Conference Room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area, said an ERD press release.

According to the release, two divisional laboratories in Chattogram and Khulna, as well as a reference laboratory, office, and training center in Dhaka, would be built as part of the “Food Safety Testing Capacity Development Project” to expand the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority’s capacity for food safety testing.

The project has a total cost of Taka 2409.70 crore, which includes JICA Loan Taka 2018.92 Cr and GoB Taka 390.78 Cr. The implementation will take place between January 2025 and December 2034.

Japan will contribute 28,699 million Japanese yen (about $194 million) to the project under this second batch of Japanese ODA loans.
 
The rate of interest of this loan will be in preferential term 1.85% for construction, 0.55% for consultancy services, Front End Fee (at a time) 0.20% and repayment period will be 30 years which includes 10 years grace period.

To meet the growing electricity demand and to improve the stable power supply of the country ‘Matarbari Ultra Super Critical Coal-Fired Power Project’ is being implemented at Matarbari Area of Maheshkhali Upazila under Cox’s Bazar district. The total cost of the project is Taka 56,693.90 Crore (GOB Taka 7,221.19 cr., JICA Loan Taka 47,945.03 cr., CPGCBL Taka 1,527.68 cr.)

The project will be implemented between July 2014 and December 2026. The project has made 92% physical progress and 86% financial progress as of February 2025.

JICA is supporting this initiative in a number of stages. In seven installments, JICA has already contributed 655,310 million JPY. In the second batch of the 8th tranche of the 45th Japanese ODA loan package, JICA will provide 57,120 million Japanese yen, or roughly $388 million.

The rate of interest of this loan will be 1.95% for construction, 0.55% for consultancy services, Front End Fee (at a time) 0.20% and repayment period will be 30 years which includes 10 years grace period.

Japan is the largest bilateral development partner of Bangladesh. Since independence, Japan has been providing continuous support for the socio-economic development of Bangladesh.

In line with the Bangladesh government’s priorities for achieving economic growth, the Japanese government has so far committed $32.62 billion loan and grant assistance for infrastructure development in different sectors like communications, power and energy, agriculture, education, health and family welfare, water supply and sanitation, rural development, environmental development, and human resource development.