ADB set to provide $2.5b to Bangladesh in three years

FE Team | Published: June 29, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The Manila-based donor -- Asian Development Bank (ADB) -- is set to provide about US$2.5 billion during 2008 to 2010 period for supporting different development activities in Bangladesh.
The lending agency have recently prepared a draft report on three-year lending programme for Bangladesh here it has earmarked some development projects and their possible financial support for those, official sources said.
A mission from the ADB was in Bangladesh from May 20 to June 12 in order to prepare the four-year lending programme for Bangladesh. After completion of their visit, the mission has prepared the report on the proposed lending programme and sent it to the Economic Relations Division (ERD) to take government's opinion on this.
Sources in the ERD said that they had received the three-year lending programme of the Bank and sought opinion from all ministries and divisions of the government on it.
"After receiving comments of the ministries and divisions on the ADB's lending programme, we will send those to the ADB. Then the ADB will finalise their programme report for Bangladesh," a senior ERD official said.
According to ADB lending programme, the donor agency will provide $932 million aid for five projects in the year of 2008, $750 million for six projects in 2009 and $815 million for eight projects in 2010. Besides, it provide around $5.0 million technical assistance for Bangladesh during 2008-2010 period.
The Bank has also included their amount of revised aid allocation for 2007 in the proposed three-year lending programme. During 2007 it will provide $870 million for four development projects in the country, the programme report said.
The proposed lending by the ADB for Bangladesh will depend on government's activities and reform works in different sectors, the report also noted.
The 67-member multilateral donor will provide the proposed funds to Bangladesh for development of different sectors like power, road and railway communications, energy, good governance, information and communication technology (ICT), port development, water supply and sanitation, agriculture and education.
A senior ERD official told the FE: "The ADB has raised its proposed amount of total aid for the next three years in their next lending programme than any other period in the previous. As per the country's requirement of huge foreign investment to develop its infrastructure as well as the economy, the multilateral donor is coming forward and proposed an increased amount of loan for its next three-year plan from 2008-2010."
The Manila-based lender disbursed about $5.69 billion of aid for Bangladesh government until last financial year 2005-06 against their total commitment of $7.92 billion during the same period.
Recently, the ADB has approved a huge chunk of loan amounting to $450 million for upgrading Bangladesh's power generation and improvement of distribution system.