Bangladesh could make good use of low cost International Development Association (IDA) loans, a top World Bank official said on Monday.
"Bangladesh is one of the largest recipients of the IDA funding from the World Bank, which I must say the government could make very good us of it," the visiting executive director of World Bank Aparna Subramani said.
"The IDA has become a part of development history (of Bangladesh)," she told newsmen after a meeting with finance minister AMA Muhith at his secretariat office.
Ms Subramani said she has briefed the finance minister about the latest developments in World Bank.
The IDA is a part of the World Bank that helps the world's poorest countries. Overseen by 173 shareholder nations, IDA aims to reduce poverty by providing loans and grants for programmes that boost economic growth, reduce inequalities and improve people's living conditions.
Bangladesh received around 10 per cent of the assistance under the IDA-17 programme. In 2017 alone the IDA assistance disbursement for Bangladesh was US$1.0 billion.
In the ongoing IDA-18 programme Bangladesh is also among the top three recipients of the loans.
The World Bank provides IDA assistance to 75 poor countries to help them foster economic growth, reduce inequalities and improve people's living conditions.
The concessional loans have a zero or very low interest charge and repayments stretch over 25 to 40 years, including a 5- to 10-year grace period.
syful-islam@outlook.com