"We have no option but to suspend further work on these projects if we are facing such a delay from the government. We are extremely disappointed and frustrated because we put a huge amount of effort, investment of time and money into developing the proposal," Executive Director of Tata Sons Alan Rosling told reporters after a meeting with the Board of Investment (BoI) in Dhaka yesterday.

Both Rosling and Executive Chairman of BoI Mahmudur Rahman yesterday expressed serious disappointment at the government's position.

Mahmudur Rahman said the government's position was already clear at the meeting between the ministers and the representatives of Tata on Sunday, the meeting between him and Rosling was to find out if BoI could help Tata in anyway but they found out that it does not have the capacity to influence the current situation.

"As a nation, we have to decide whether we really need foreign direct investment (FDI). But we should not have a double standard, when there is lack of FDI, people criticise BoI but when it tries to bring in FDI then they ask what was the purpose of bringing it in," Mahmudur Rahman, also the energy adviser, told the reporters.

He said the government and the main opposition have to decide whether they will allow a small fraction of the extreme left or the right to have a control over economic decisions. He said the government should take decisions based on the people's aspirations. BoI can bring in investors but the responsibility of signing an agreement is on the government, he added.

He also said after going back to India, Tata will take its final decision at a board meeting and will officially inform the Bangladesh government what it's representative had told him verbally at yesterday's meeting.

Rosling said, "There is no immediate prospect of a substantive discussion on our proposal and it is a real shame. This is a proposal that should have been accepted. It is very disappointing for us and the team that worked so hard for it. It is not in the interest of the people whom Tata wanted to engage in Bangladesh."

"While we are keen to invest in these projects, their revival after a considerable delay must depend on circumstances at that point. We constantly examine opportunities worldwide and would need to assess the attractiveness of investment in Bangladesh compared to other options then available to us," he said.

Tata officials had a series of meetings with ministers and officials of the government in the last two days and they got consistently same responses from all of them.

"We now understand that the government is only likely to take matters forward after the general elections scheduled for January 2007," Rosling said.

He said everyone he met personally said it is a good proposal and he did not receive any criticism from any of them. They said they are not in a position to restart the negotiation at this moment, Rosling pointed out.

"We still believe the proposal is extremely good for the country, for the economy, for employment, and for balance of payment, and we also believe it is a good business centre for us," he said. "You can't play football with only one team. If the government is not in a position to negotiate, we can't negotiate."

"We have other businesses in this country. We have successful and growing truck motor business and other businesses. So, we will remain in Bangladesh. If there are major projects in Bangladesh that we can take up or if the government wishes us to examine any project, we will be open to those," he said.

Tata Group submitted its revised offer on 30 April 2006 after some nine months of detailed negotiation on a proposed steel plant with 2.4 metric ton per annum (mtpa) capacity, captive and IPP power plants, an open cast coalmine, and a urea fertiliser plant with one mtpa capacity. In October 2004 in presence of Ratan Tata an expression of interest was signed between the Bangladesh government and the industrial conglomerate.

Mahmudur Rahman said Tata told him that the negotiation could have been finished much earlier. "But we wanted to take a decision in a very transparent manner," he added.

He said a secretarial committee report on Tata's investment proposal is now at the final stage of scrutiny. The committee will review the report on July 16 and will submit the report to a cabinet committee headed by the industries minister by July 31. The cabinet committee will decide whether the proposal should be sent to the cabinet.

However, the BoI chairman said Tata may still go ahead with its investment proposal in Bangladesh if the main opposition political parties and the government come up with decisions in the next three months that they do not have any reservation about the proposal.