While climate debate raged in Copenhagen, Planet Finance China Executive Director Gabrielle Harris was in Bangladesh at the invitation of the European Commission-funded Rendev project (www.rendev.org) , which brings together partners from Paris, Indonesia and Bangladesh to work on innovative financing mechanisms for renewable energy technologies.
On the flight to Dhaka, there were striking numbers of Chinese businessmen travelling with many carrier-bags full of manufacturing samples for the textile and garment trade. There is a growing number of Chinese traders who are switching their manufacturing to Bangladesh, where there minimum wages are set low. Bilateral trade in 2007 had reach $3.44 billion, of which US$3.33 was in exports from China to Bangladesh.
Once we got talking about solar power, it became clear that most of the photo-voltaic panels were originally from Chinese manufacturers, going through local retailers. The complaint threading through the meetings was the still prohibitively high cost of these panels, which take up an average of 60 percent of the total solar household system installations offered by, for example, Grameen Shakti, and pushing the total price up to the point where loans have to be spread out over long periods of time (3 years) in order for those who really need them to be able to get them. Bangladeshi VAT and import taxes have already been removed from these items so essential to the poorly electrified country. (As of the end of 2007, roughly 60% of villages had received electricity, according to World Bank research.)
PlaNet Finance China would like to hear from any local manufacturers of panel sets delivering 50W and below, who can guarantee sustained operation over 20 years, and who might be interested in talking to Bangladeshi financiers of systems about either mass ordering mechanisms or the potential for setting up manufacturing in Bangladesh. Please contact Gabrielle in English or Chinese on gharris [at] mfchina.cn for more information.
