London South East | The UK's favourite investor portal.

There are even screen shots of our discussion on here yesterday appearing on the replies to his post,there are some very sneaky individuals trawling these boards,blame the shareholders……absolute rubbish,the biggest beneficiaries of this project will be Bangladesh and China…that has always been the case on nearly all the mega projects…….we hold a license and are currently worth a tad over £20mln quid……Bangladesh is wasting more than our worth on import coal every month…….

Good debates are the foundation of a healthy democracy. Personal attacks and language that vilify others only highlight intolerance.

1. I was likely the first foreign correspondent to break the news of the Fulbari carnage. I still recall how much persuasion it took to get the police to admit that protesters had been killed. At the time, I was the AFP correspondent in Dhaka. The story drew significant attention in the UK because Asian Energy, the company that received preliminary approval for the project, was listed in London.

2. I condemned the killings then, and I condemn them again today. For years, the police and border guards have been trigger-happy in dealing with protests. The Interim Government has been working hard to break this cycle of violence.

3. My recent personal post about the Fulbari open-pit mining project stems from my 16 months of experience working with the Interim Government. Bangladesh remains a least developed country, and our activism often overlooks this reality. If I were still with AFP, I would probably have strongly criticised the position I now hold.

4. Energy security is essential for a nation’s growth, a fact that became clearer to me after joining the government. A conflict in one part of the world can send LNG and oil prices soaring elsewhere. After the Ukraine war, we had to purchase LNG at five to ten times the usual rates. We simply cannot afford LNG at those levels. The choice then becomes whether to drain our reserves to buy LNG or shut down factories for months at a time.

4. I welcome the thoughtful criticism of my writing over the last two days. Mahtab Uddin Ahmed and several others pointed out the gaps in my arguments. I appreciate their hard work and insightful analyses of the Fulbari project.

5. That said, I still believe we made a significant mistake in not extracting coal from our major reserves—Fulbari, Dighipara, and Jamalganj. If the Asian Energy agreement was flawed, we should have corrected the errors and sought a new partner, such as BHP Billiton or Rio Tinto. In 2006, our per capita income was only around 600–700 dollars. We were still desperately poor. The Fulbari protests didn't end our coal ambition. We have become a big coal importing country since the mid 2010s.

6. Some critics seem to have overlooked that I wrote the post in my personal capacity. My views do not reflect any government policy. As far as I know, this government has no intention of reviving the Fulbari coal project. My post was simply a personal reflection.

7. I have always admired the left for their strong stance on human rights, minority rights, and freedom of expression. During my AFP years, I joined numerous protests championing such causes. Their passion is invaluable.

https://www.facebook.com/mostofa.k.palash/posts/shafiqul-alam-vai-initiated-an-excellent-debate-about-the-fate-of-the-fulbari-op/10236420405863187/

Shafiqul Alam

For many leftist parties and activists, the Fulbari anti–coal extraction protests of August 2006 remain one of their proudest moments of “red activism.” Several protesters were killed when police opened fire on thousands of demonstrators. The protests took place barely two months before the BNP government completed its tenure. The BNP never made a final decision on the proposed open-pit mine at Fulbari, but the next government effectively shelved the project — and it was never revived.

At the time, I was working as a correspondent for AFP. I remember reading numerous reports and commentaries in prominent newspapers that rallied public sentiment against Fulbari coal mining, especially the open pit coal mining, even as top coal mining nations such as China and Australia heavily relied on this method. Nearly every major opinion piece concluded that the Fulbari project would create an environmental catastrophe, worsen air quality, and displace thousands who, it was claimed, would never be properly compensated or rehabilitated.

What we failed to consider was the broader cost of not extracting our coal. The protests halted the project at a time when nearly every major industrial nation was still relying on coal as a primary source of power — and at a time when Bangladesh’s gas reserves were visibly declining. Within a decade, depletion became so severe that we began importing LNG to keep our power plants, fertilizer factories, and export-oriented industries running.

Scrapping the coal-mining projects — at a time when Bangladesh was still desperately poor and when coal-fired power plants were the global norm — had a devastating long-term impact on our balance of payments. Annual coal extraction could have saved the country at least two billion dollars in energy imports. Instead, we left our coal resources in Fulbari, Dighipara, and Jamalganj untouched out of fear that exploiting fossil fuels would ruin the environment — and out of fear of the leftist groups supported by influential newspapers.

This was, in my view, a suicidal decision for our energy security. It made us permanently dependent on imported Indian coal. Today, some 10,000 brick kilns burn Indian coal, collectively becoming the single largest source of air pollution in the country. We did not stop building coal-fired power plants either; on the contrary, we built some of the largest ones and fueled them with imported Indian and Indonesian coal. And again — guess who benefited. We even entered a power purchase agreement with an Adani plant that itself runs mostly on Indian coal.

Bangladesh was poor in the 2000s. It still is. We were never in a position to afford a coal-less future.

https://www.facebook.com/shafiqul.alam.71216/posts/the-following-is-my-personal-opinionfor-many-leftist-parties-and-activists-the-f/33735370106053795/

The following is my personal opinion:

For many leftist parties and activists, the Fulbari anti–coal extraction protests of August 2006 remain one of their proudest moments of “red activism.” Several protesters were killed when police opened fire on thousands of demonstrators. The protests took place barely two months before the BNP government completed its tenure. The BNP never made a final decision on the proposed open-pit mine at Fulbari, but the next government effectively shelved the project — and it was never revived.

At the time, I was working as a correspondent for AFP. I remember reading numerous reports and commentaries in prominent newspapers that rallied public sentiment against Fulbari coal mining, especially the open pit coal mining, even as top coal mining nations such as China and Australia heavily relied on this method. Nearly every major opinion piece concluded that the Fulbari project would create an environmental catastrophe, worsen air quality, and displace thousands who, it was claimed, would never be properly compensated or rehabilitated.

What we failed to consider was the broader cost of not extracting our coal. The protests halted the project at a time when nearly every major industrial nation was still relying on coal as a primary source of power — and at a time when Bangladesh’s gas reserves were visibly declining. Within a decade, depletion became so severe that we began importing LNG to keep our power plants, fertilizer factories, and export-oriented industries running.

Scrapping the coal-mining projects — at a time when Bangladesh was still desperately poor and when coal-fired power plants were the global norm — had a devastating long-term impact on our balance of payments. Annual coal extraction could have saved the country at least two billion dollars in energy imports. Instead, we left our coal resources in Fulbari, Dighipara, and Jamalganj untouched out of fear that exploiting fossil fuels would ruin the environment — and out of fear of the leftist groups supported by influential newspapers.

This was, in my view, a suicidal decision for our energy security. It made us permanently dependent on imported Indian coal. Today, some 10,000 brick kilns burn Indian coal, collectively becoming the single largest source of air pollution in the country. We did not stop building coal-fired power plants either; on the contrary, we built some of the largest ones and fueled them with imported Indian and Indonesian coal. And again — guess who benefited. We even entered a power purchase agreement with an Adani plant that itself runs mostly on Indian coal.

Bangladesh was poor in the 2000s. It still is. We were never in a position to afford a coal-less future. China — with massive foreign reserves and the world’s largest solar energy capacity — still relies heavily on coal.

https://www.facebook.com/shafiqul.alam.71216/posts/the-following-is-my-personal-opinionfor-many-leftist-part

Latest Share Chat

Member Info for Digit4lis

Followers

Following

Posts (Last 30 Days)

Posts (All Time)

Last Post

Member Since

Share Chat Post Distribution (Last 30 Days)

Activity Log (Last 30 Days)