The model PSC (Production Sharing Contract) 2008 had been on the website for a year. Why didn National Committee comment on it then or advance any programme?
Ans: It’s not true that we didn’t say anything then. The PSC 2008 model was designed during the caretaker government regime. It was uploaded on the net to facilitate international bidding, not to elicit comments or responses from members of the public. It is not as if bidding proceeded after comments were incorporated. Not at all. It was made available on the net to facilitate the bidding of multinational companies. We began talking about Bangladesh’s maritime boundaries from 2007 onwards. It is of utmost importance that these boundaries are fixed. If this is not done we will end up losing control not only over our offshore natural resources, but over maritime territory as well. Secondly, Bangladesh is still suffering as a result of PSCs signed earlier. Bangladesh’s maritime territory has been divided into 28 blocks, if gas exploration is carried out, and if gas is found and extracted from these blocks, we will be worse off. We need only 200-300 crore taka annually to make Bapex—a nati
