Bangladesh's private sector is set to get a big boost as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will extend its financial support to the country's growing private companies in addition to its public sector financing, officials said Monday.
Officials said Ms Lakshmi Venkatachalam, a vice president of the Manila-based lender arrived in Dhaka on Monday night. She would sit with two big private sector companies in Bangladesh and with two government policymakers today (Tuesday) in her one-day official visit to Bangladesh.
Ms Venkatachalam, an ADB VP on Private Sector and Co-financing Operation, will sit with the country's largest food processing company Pran Group and the private sector power generator Summit Group, government officials and ADB Dhaka office said.
The Pran Group, a borrower from the ADB, and Summit Group, a prospective borrower, will make two separate presentations for the visiting ADB VP on the companies' operation and future plans, they said.
"Both the companies are likely to seek more financial support from the ADB for developing their industrial and business operations in Bangladesh," a Ministry of Finance (MoF) official told the FE.
Head of External Affairs of the ADB Dhaka office Govinda Bar said: "The ADB will extend its support to Bangladesh's private sector in future. "ADB has taken a policy to raise its investment to 50 per cent of the total portfolio for the private sector development and its operations up to 2020 among the member countries."
The Vice President would see Bangladesh's private sector operations and try to explore scopes for its further support here, he told the FE.
A MoF official said the government during the meeting with the ADB Vice President would request to extend financial support to the private sector for boosting the industrial activities in the country.
Ms Venkatachalam would meet Finance Minister AMA Muhith and Energy Adviser Dr Taufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury during her visit in Dhaka.
Since 1989, the Manila-based lender provided US$297.3 million loans for 10 projects in Bangladesh's private sector.
The Manila-based lender is actively considering to provide loan to Summit Group for setting up 450-megawatt Bibiyana-II power plant.
In 2012, the ADB gave $25.1 million in loans to the Sylvan Agriculture Limited, a subsidiary of the Pran Group, and $30 million to the Industrial and Infrastructure Development Company Limited & to the Industrial Energy Efficiency Finance Programme in the previous year of 2011.
It had also provided loan for the GrameenPhone Telecommunications, AES Meghnaghat Power, Kader Synthetic Fibres Ltd, Lafarge Surma Cement, Padma Textile and some other private companies in Bangladesh in last two decades.
Besides, the ADB has confirmed $5.19 billion loans for 46 ongoing investment projects of the government in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, another Vice President (Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development) of the ADB, also arrived in Dhaka on Monday afternoon for a two-day official visit.
She would visit an ADB-funded project today (Tuesday) and will meet the Finance Minister and Education Minister on Wednesday in Dhaka.
ADB to extend loan to pvt cos, govt projects
FE Report | Published: August 19, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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