ADB offers $1.15b in budget support

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) assures Bangladesh government of providing nearly US$1.15 billion for bankrolling budget in the current fiscal year (FY) of 2024-25, officials said Wednesday after project-review talks.
The country programming mission (CPM) of the ADB sat Wednesday with Economic Relations Division (ERD) and relevant ministries to prepare its proposed three-year funding portfolios.
The Manila-based lender is likely to provide US$400 million worth of budgetary support for facing challenges of LDC graduation, $250 million for phase-II on environment development issues, and $500 million for financial-sector reform within this fiscal year (FY2025).
With ERD Secretary Shahriar Kader Siddiki in the chair, the ADB also reviewed its ongoing $13-billion portfolios for the 53 ongoing projects at a Tripartite Project Review Meeting (TPRM).
At the three-day tripartite review meeting Monday-Wednesday, the Asian bank reviewed the ongoing projects the lender is funding.
The Project Directors and representatives from the line ministries were also present at the TPRM.
As of September 2024, ADB's Bangladesh lending portfolios included 53 projects worth around $13 billion.
"We have sat for a three-day meeting with ADB for settling the barriers on the way to implementing the ADB-funded projects," said a senior ERD official.
He said the review meeting successfully completed as some issues were settled through discussion.
Another official says the ADB has asked the Bangladeshi project-implementing agencies to utilize the committed funds in time or it will be diverted to other sectors for the better use.
ADB's priority areas for support in Bangladesh include energy, transport, urban infrastructure, water supply and sanitation, education, agriculture and natural resources, and finance.
Earlier, the ADB's TPRM was supposed to be held with the ERD and the project- implementing agencies of the government in July.
But it was suspended due to the student protests against the Sheikh Hasina government.
The ADB is the second-largest multilateral development partner of Bangladesh in terms of its amount of foreign aid for implementing different projects and programmes after the country's independence.
It is bankrolling some megaprojects in Bangladesh, including the Dohazari-Ramu-Cox's Bazar railway line, Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development Investment Project (Line 5, Southern Route), and South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation Dhaka-Northwest Corridor Road Project, Phase 2 (Tranche 3).
In the July-April period last fiscal year (FY) 2023-24, the ADB disbursed $1.499 billion worth of assistance and $1.787 billion in FY2023 to Bangladesh, ERD data showed.

[email protected]