Following talks in Moscow on 18-19 May, Bangladesh and Russia concluded negotiations for $11.385bn in Russian credit for construction of Bangladesh's first NPP at Rooppur. "We've successfully concluded the negotiation for the credit agreement and we hope the final credit deal will be signed within two months after necessary vetting from different ministries," according to Additional Secretary to the Bangladesh Science and Technology Ministry M Anwar Hossain. He was part of the high-level delegation to Moscow led by Science and Technology Minister Yaefesh Osman. He said both sides had initiated a draft agreement on the proposed credit.
Officials said the proposed credit is 90% of the $12.65bn construction cost of the plant, which Russia will provide as state credit. Russia is expected to provide the loan with an interest rate of six months Libor plus 1.75% a year, which will never exceed 4%. Bangladesh will repay the loan within 28 years with a 10-year grace period. The December 2015 general agreement signed between the Atomic Energy Commission of Bangladesh and Russia's Atomstroyexport (part of the Group of Companies ASE, a subsidiary of state nuclear corporation Rosatom) for construction of a 2,400MWe NPP (two VVER-1200MWe units) will be effective soon after signing of the credit agreement, the officials added.
Rosatom has said unit 1 of the NPP will begin operation in 2022 followed by unit 2 in 2023. As well as finance, the talks also covered "issues related to granting a construction site licence, approval procedure of the NPP design chosen by Bangladesh and approval of the terms of reference for drafting design documentation, as well as additional coordination of remaining addendums to the general contract," a Rosatom statement said.
