IDB Group now focuses on sectoral financing in B'desh

FE Team | Published: December 08, 2012 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Syful Islam
Alongside trade financing the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group is now looking to sectoral funding in Bangladesh, official sources said.
The IDB Group in its Member Country Partnership Strategy (MCPS) for 2013-2016 for Bangladesh has stated that it will start structural financing alongside the existing trade financing it had been doing for long.
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) would soon send its opinion to the Economic Relations Division (ERD) regarding the IDB Group's intended support in sectors under the ministry, sources said.
The IDB Group had been helping Bangladesh in trade financing, mainly the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) in fuel oil import.
Officials said an IDB Group mission led by its Regional Division Manager Ahmed Saleh Hariri recently visited Dhaka with the end in view. Then the government and the IDB mission reached a consensus regarding its funding in different other sectors as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank had been doing.
Sources said the ERD already prepared an aide-memoire on the possible funding from the IDB Group. However, it is yet to be decided how much the IDB can invest in Bangladesh during 2013-2016.
According to the IDB Group's MCPS programme for 2013-2016 it will assist Bangladesh in energy efficiency improvement involving the existing power sector infrastructure, support an increased contribution of renewable energy to the energy mix and promote clean coal technologies for power generation.
It has also planned to help the country in the area of Public Private Partnership (PPP), including direct lending to PPP projects, assist the Water and Sewerage Authority in reducing dependence on groundwater, provide technical assistance and support integrated urban development programmes in secondary cities.
Under its plan to support sustainable agriculture and rural development the IDB Group will finance construction of cold storage facilities for vegetables, fruits and fishery products, enhancement of agro-processing capacity and assisting in improvement and extension of irrigation network.
Besides, the IDB Group will also support construction and rehabilitation of rural road network, strengthen scientific and institutional capacity of research institutes, design and implement more efficient extension and training services for farmers and fishermen and strengthen farmers' cooperatives and design a sustainable input support scheme.
For enhancing human development, the IDB Group will assist in meeting the health-related millennium development goals (MDGs), particularly maternal and child health, finance public sector reproductive health programmes and infrastructure development in lowland flood-prone communities.
A senior MoF official welcomed the IDB Group's move on sectoral funding saying that it would help economic development of the country.