"We want to be a development partner in Bangladesh. We find the atmosphere now investment-friendly and we may invest more than 3 billion dollars in different sectors, mainly power and energy," Vinod Mittal told reporters on arrival at the airport, according to agency reports.

Mittal, Managing Director of Ispat Industries Limited, India, will sign a memorandum of understanding concerning the investment with the government today.

The MoU is a formal agreement to conduct a one-year feasibility study and is a first step to any eventual investment of this scale. The signing will take place between Vinod Mittal and Nazrul Islam, executive chairman of the Board of Investment (BoI), at the Sonargaon Hotel.

At the signing Mittal will represent Global Oil and Energy Limited, UK and Global Steel Holdings Limited, two energy and steel companies.

Mittal will also meet President Iajuddin Ahmed, Chief Adviser Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, Chief of the Army Staff General Moeen U Ahmed and Energy Adviser Tapan Chowdhury.

The companies will sign the MoU for the proposed investments in areas such as coalmine development and exploration, petrochemicals and oil and gas field development and exploration.

The group's local agent GRH Bangladesh Limited is arranging the programme.

The homepages Global Oil and Energy Limited, UK and Global Steel Holdings Limited could not be found on the internet. The two companies' Bangladesh representative Kamal Ahmed said homepages did not exist although it both companies had invested in many countries.

BoI chief executive said he was not sure whether the companies are a subsidiary of the steel giant Mittal Group or not. He said he would ask Vinod Mittal today.

Asked why the BoI was taking on another large scale investment proposal when it had struggled for several years to reach a decision on a similar proposal by India's Tata Group, the BoI executive chairman said the Tata investment couldn't be finalised as certain key government policies had been lacking.

"We did not have coal policy or a gas policy during the Tata investment negotiations but we hope the policies will be finalised within the next year and the government can complete the investment deals," Nazrul Islam said.

He said after signing the MoU with Mittal it would take another one year for the feasibility study and to start investment negotiations.