KSA mulls investing $1.2b in BD, Red Sea terminal to launch operations in Ctg

Saudi Arabia is planning to invest $1.2 billion in Bangladesh, and the Saudi company, Red Sea Gateway Terminal, will start its operations at Patenga Bay Terminal in Chattogram in April this year.

Saudi Ambassador in Dhaka, Essa Yousef Essa Al Duhailan, said this on Thursday.

While talking to the media at the opening of a food basket event at the Saudi embassy in the capital, he said that last year the Saudi company signed a 22-year concession deal with the Chattogram Port Authority to develop a container terminal at Bangladesh’s primary port in a deal worth $170 million.

The Red Sea Gateway Terminal will develop and operate a 500,000-twenty-foot equivalent unit facility and will be equipped with new technologies to handle the fast-growing export market, he added.

Responding to a question he said, Saudi Arabia is expecting to further strengthen its relationship with Bangladesh through the visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the latter half of this year.

About the food basket opening, Saudi Ambassador Essa Yousef Essa Al Duhailan said a total of 15,500 baskets of food items, each containing 24 kilos of variety of food, will be distributed among the vulnerable people in 32 places across the country. They will also include the Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar.

Under the instructions of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, food items are being provided to the poor as a symbol of solidarity.

He said about 2.8 million Bangladeshis, working in Saudi Arabia, are making significant contributions to the Saudi and Bangladesh economies.