Bangladesh's Billion-Dollar Power 'Deals' Spark Energy Crisis
📰 THE STORY: The Financial Times reports that a review found Bangladesh's reliance on specific electricity purchase agreements has led to billions of dollars in added costs for the country. These contracts, often for plants that sit idle, force Bangladesh to pay capacity charges, exacerbating an already strained national budget and leading to rising consumer electricity prices. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE
NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: This isn't just about 'bad deals.' It's a classic example of developing nations being locked into exploitative contracts, often enabled by international financial institutions. Remember the structural adjustment programs of the 1980s and 90s, where the IMF and World Bank pushed privatization and deregulation, paving the way for such 'market-based solutions'
that primarily benefit foreign corporations and local elites? Bangladesh, like many nations in the Global South, has been under immense pressure to adopt 'economic reforms' that often disempower national infrastructure and enrich private ventures. Double Standard: When Western nations face energy crises, the media narrative often points to external factors like 'war in Ukraine' or supply chain
disruptions. When a nation like Bangladesh faces a similar crisis, the blame immediately shifts to internal 'mismanagement' and 'corruption.' There's rarely an in-depth look at the predatory nature of foreign investment, the conditionalities of loans, or the geopolitical pressures that push nations into these unfavorable agreements. We see no calls for sanctions against the corporations profiting