The Korean government has secured the right to negotiate a $1bn water supply project for an industrial park in Bangladesh, website Business Korea reports.

The announcement was made by Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, after meeting in Dhaka with Bangladesh’s PPP Authority.

The project’s objective is to deliver a daily supply of 250,000 tonnes of water to an industrial park near the port city of Chittagong in the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpa Naga (BSMSN) Economic Zone.

BSMSN is a planned industrial city on the Bay of Bengal. It’s intended as “an example of a smart, vibrant and multimodal platform with all modern amenities”, according to the project’s masterplan.

If it goes ahead, the water project will involve a joint venture between the Korea Overseas Infrastructure Corporation (KIND) and contractor Taeyoung E&C, which will have the right to negotiate the terms of the agreement without entering into a public tendering process.

In 2019, KIND signed a memorandum of understanding with Bangladesh, and subsequently held four rounds of the consultations to discuss possible infrastructure projects.

In July, Italian firm IQT Consulting was appointed to provide transaction advisory services.