WB to offer US$ 250m fund for PPP infrastructure dev

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FHM Humayan Kabir
The World Bank is set to bankroll US$ 250 million to Bangladesh for facilitating investment in the infrastructure development under the newly introduced public-private partnership (PPP) scheme, officials said Thursday.
The finance ministry officials said they had already got assurance of funds from the global lender World Bank (WB) which will be invested in power, energy, port development, roads and flyover construction projects.
"The Bank has already pledged to provide a $250 million fund for Bangladesh Bank. The central bank, through operating the fund, will finance the private sector investors by way of local commercial banks and financial institutions," a senior economic relations division official told the FE.
The central bank would provide loan to the commercial banks and financial institutions. The banks and institutions would bankroll the private sector companies for investing in the country's infrastructure development, the official added.
The ERD official said the World Bank would provide the fund under the "Investment promotion and financing facility project", which would be implemented by Bangladesh Bank.
He said it is a big boost to the government's newly introduced PPP initiatives, which welcome private sector investments in the country's poor infrastructure including power supply and communications systems.
The government in 2009 opened the PPP investment scheme, when it urged the private sector to invest in the demand-driven sectors like energy, port and road developments.
A PPP guideline and policy has already been drafted, which will be launched soon after getting approval of the Prime Minister.
The ERD official said the government has tried to persuade the World Bank to finance for infrastructure development in order to attract more local and foreign investments to Bangladesh.
The Washington-based donor has already provided $50 million to Bangladesh Bank under the "Investment promotion & financing facility project".
Form the $50 million fund, the central bank bankrolled the private firms through the commercial banks and financial institutions to set up 178-megawatt-combined-capacity several small power plants across the country.
The proposed $250 million loan would be the additional financing by the global lender for the PPP projects in the country, the ERD official said.
He said the additional $250 million WB fund is expected to be disbursed in the next financial year 2010-11. The fund would be spent in five years till FY2015, he added.