(BSS) - Business leaders today received an assurance that gas and electricity supplies to industries will return to the previous level from tomorrow night, as the government moves to address the recent energy situation.

FBCCI Administrator Md Fazlul Hoque disclosed the assurance while briefing journalists after a nearly three-hour meeting between Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and the business leaders at the Bangladesh Secretariat today.

“From tomorrow night, we will be able to return to the gas and electricity supply situation that existed before the new crisis emerged. This is the biggest achievement and the biggest relief from today’s meeting,” he said.

Asked what he meant by the “previous situation,” Fazlul said it referred to the situation before the crisis that emerged in August.

He said the energy crisis had affected not only businesses and industries but also people across all sections of society.

Representatives of 21 business organisations, including the BGMEA, Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ICCB, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, BTMA and BKMEA, attended the meeting.

Prime Minister’s Adviser and Prime Minister’s Office spokesperson Mahdi Amin briefed journalists on the meeting.

He said the discussions covered issues crucial to business and trade, employment and industrialisation, particularly electricity, gas, energy and mineral resources.

The government has started work on several long-term plans to address the power crisis, including the construction of five terminals, he said.

Mahdi said the government could not resolve immediately the crisis that had accumulated over the past 16 years.

He said the government was taking initiatives to build an integrated, production-oriented energy system based on gas, electricity and coal, while giving special priority to solar power alongside achieving self-sufficiency in the electricity sector.

“Our power sector will become diversified in the coming days, and we will achieve self-sufficiency in our energy resources,” Mahdi said.