Bangladesh needs to improve physical infrastructure: ADB

FE Team | Published: October 17, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is set to augment support for developing Bangladesh's infrastructure to sustain higher growth of gross domestic product (GDP) and to facilitate faster poverty reduction.
"Bangladesh needs to significantly improve its physical infrastructure including power, ports, railway and water supply and sanitation to sustain higher GDP growth and faster poverty reduction. The ADB is ready to provide increased support in power, transport and integrated urban development," the ADB director general for South Asia Kunio Senga told the FE recently.
"Infrastructure is our main intervention area," he said adding, "We have many ongoing infrastructure development projects in Bangladesh and many projects are also in the pipeline."
The ADB has already agreed in principle to support construction of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge, Senga said.
"We are going to provide finance for the detailed engineering design of the Padma Bridge in the current fiscal," the ADB chief for South Asia department said.
Following the success of the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge, which was completed in 1996, the ADB, together with Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the World Bank (WB), is set to support construction of the Padma Bridge.
The bridge is aimed to stimulate faster economic growth and poverty reduction in the less developed western region.
The ADB is also set to support a medium-term programme of policy and institutional reforms, capacity building and investments required for improving water supply and sewerage and drainage services on a sustainable basis in the major metropolitan cities of Dhaka and Chittagong, said Senga.
The donor agency will implement this programme in collaboration with the Department for International Development (DFID), WB, Danish International Development Assistance and the Japanese government.
The ADB is now supporting to improve the railway network through investments and reforms.