The government is going to formulate a policy for the establishment and operation of petrochemical industries in the country.

The decision was taken at a meeting held at the Energy Division on Sunday with State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid in the chair.

According to official sources, the meeting discussed a draft policy prepared by the Energy Division over the issue.

They said a number of private companies expressed keen interest to set up petrochemical industries has prompted the government to formulate the policy.

“Such industries are of a special kind of ventures

that need a huge investment maintaining highest

safety and security issues,” said a top official at the Energy Division who is involved in the preparation of the policy.

He said local companies Bashundhara Group and TK Group have already obtained licences for setting up petrochemical industries in Chattogram while entrepreneurs from India, Saudi Arabia and some other countries are pursuing to have permission for such industries.

Official sources said Bashundhara Group has proposed investing Tk 10,000 crore to set up a plant with a capacity of 3.0 million tonnes of petrochemicals annually.

About the proposed policy, the official said it was proposed in the draft policy that the interested investors have to set up their plants far from the locality considering the safety of the local habitants.

Secondly, they have to obtain clearance certificates from the Department of Environment and other local bodies and also meet some criteria set by the government keeping alignment with international standard.

The entrepreneurs also have to put emphasis mainly on production of petrochemical products instead of petroleum products like octane, diesel, petrol or kerosene.

“They’ve to maintain a ratio of 70:30 in producing petrochemical and petroleum products,” said the official, preferring anonymity.

The officials mentioned that Saudi Arabian national petroleum and natural gas-based Oil Company Aramco has shown its interest to invest in the petrochemical sector in Bangladesh.

Aramco Managing Director Waleed K Ghemlas, while visiting Bangladesh in January last, expressed the interest during a meeting with State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid.