The Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Monday said that the ministry is planning to put restriction on foreign training and travels of the top management of power and energy sector.
He was speaking as the chief guest during a seminar on “The Power Development Trend in Bangladesh, Difficulties and Prospects”, organized by the Electrical Engineering Division of Institute of Engineers (IEB) at the IEB seminar hall.
“I have approved foreign trainings and travels for a lot of officials in Power and Energy Divisions. In most cases, the same persons from the top management went to the training. I didn’t find what value was added because of that”.Hamid said that Ministry is preparing a list of potential mid management officials for foreign trainings and travels. “Very soon, we will sending right people at right places instead of the same top management”.
The State Minister said that the country is planning to double its current electricity capacity within the next decade. “Our main resource for electricity-gas-is on the wane, so we have to look for other resources. We think about LNG, we think about coal but we also need to think about other innovative resources”.
He said for that, we will be needing able human resources. “We seriously lack able human resources. We have to come up with innovations. That’s why I am planning to provide foreign training opportunities to mid management”, he said.
Hamid said, the older generation of the enginners of the country are used to work with 150-200MW power plant. “Soon, we will have to deal with 1320MW coal based ultra super critical power plant. We don’t have any experience in handling that”.
He said that the country is also going to have its first nuclear power plant. “We also lack able human resources there. So we have a miles to go ahead”, he said.
The State Minister asked the engineers present at the seminar to come up with innovative solutions. “Come to me with better ideas. We have the potential to harness hydrelectricity in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) but we are not doing that. Give me an innovative idea for producing hydrelectricity”, he said.
Speaking on the occassion as the special guest, Engr Kabir Ahmed Bhuiyah, President of IEB said, 90% of the engineers of our country are non cadre which creates a discrimination.
“I urge the State Minister to raise that issue in a meeting with the Prime Minister. The most brilliant minds of the country come to study engineering. This discrimination hurts them”, he said.
Prof Muhammad Fazlur Rahman, Head, Energy System, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia presented the keynote paper on the occasion.
Engr Hamidul Hoque, Chairman, Electrical Engineering Division, IEB presided over the occasion. – Staff Reporter
