Kathmandu – Nepal and Bangladesh have intensified communications aiming at a power trade agreement between the two countries, media reports in Nepal said.

The Kathmandu Post reported that Nepalese Ministry of Energy has been preparing a draft to sign a memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation with Bangladesh.

The draft includes mechanisms for conducting power trade between the two countries as envisioned by the Saarc Framework Agreement for Energy Cooperation signed by all the South Asian nations in November 2014, ministry officials said on Wednesday.

It states that a joint technical team will be formed to carry out a study and develop a modality and mechanism under which electricity can be traded between Nepal and Bangladesh.

Last week, the ministry sent copies of the draft to the Finance, Law and Foreign ministries for their approval.

Energy Joint Secretary Dinesh Kumar Ghimire said they had already received the Foreign Ministry’s nod to go ahead.

“Once we get the go-ahead from the Finance and Law ministries, the draft will be presented to the Cabinet for its final approval,” said Ghimire.

“It won’t take much time for the MoU to be signed after that as Bangladesh is keen to conclude such an understanding,” the official was quoted to have said by the newspaper.

Bangladesh and Nepal have been holding discussions on power trading since the then energy minister Radha Gyawali visited Bangladesh in August 2014.

During the visit, the two parties held extensive talks on enhancing power sector cooperation between Nepal, Bangladesh and India.

Gyawali also welcomed the initiatives of Bangladesh for trilateral cooperation involving Bangladesh, India and Nepal for hydropower development and grid connectivity.

Although, Nepal and Bangladesh are likely to sign the deal pretty soon, actual power trading between the two countries is still a farfetched dream, according to officials at the Energy Ministry.

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