DHAKA, Nov 22: Bangladesh could benefit from export of its natural gas through well-executed deals and efficient management of the revenues earned from such export, a visiting senior World Bank official said here on Thursday.

Gas export can reap benefits for the people of Bangladesh and of course this assumes that when gas is exported and revenue that will come from the export, is used for benefit of the people, Mieko Nishimizu, the Bank’s vice president for South Asian was quoted as saying by the official BSS news agency.

Nishimizu, who Thursday met Prime Minister Khaleda Zia at the end of her visit, said Bangladesh badly needs foreign currency for its development and the sharing of resources with other nations could derive benefits in meeting that need.

The economy is in a difficult situation now with a declining performance in export, a slowed growth rate in the business sector and leakage in revenue collection, Nishimizu said

Her comments came two weeks after Bangladesh’s leftwing groups held a general strike to protest the prospect of the new government allowing natural gas to be exported to neighbouring India under a controversial proposal.

The issue is controversial as experts say Bangladesh does not have enough reserves for domestic use, let alone for export.

The Left Democratic Front, made up of eight small left-wing parties, criticised the move and threatened fresh protests if the government went ahead

The November 15 strike, which left 30 people injured and 50 others arrested, is the first major street protest since Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led coalition won a landslide victory in the October 1, parliamentary election.

Last month the US oil giant Unocal said it had drawn up $1.2 billion plans for a 1,363 kilometre (847 mile) pipeline from the Bibiyana gas field in northeast Bangladesh to the Indian capital New Delhi.—AFP