Govt sits with WB tomorrow to confirm funding

FE ReportbrThe government will sit with the World Bank tomorrow (Thursday) to confirm funding for its newly shaped package programme for reconstructing the devastating cyclone-hit coastal districts in the southern Bangladesh, officials said Tuesday.brThe government will reconstruct the damaged agricultural lands, coastal embankments, multi-purpose shelters and will implement a long-term disaster risk management programme in the coastal belt at a cost of US$109 million, an official in the planning ministry said.brThe World Bank will provide the entire cost of $109 million for implementing the umbrella project. We'll sit with the global lender Thursday for completing the negotiations for getting the fund, he said.brThe government for the first time after cyclone Sidr that hit Bangladesh's southern coastal districts on November 2007 has taken the umbrella project titled Emergency 2007 cyclone recovery and restoration project for rebuilding the damaged infrastructure and agriculture.brFollowing a donor-government joint damage, loss and need assessment on cyclone Sidr, the global lender a few months ago assured Bangladesh of giving $109 million fund for recovery and restoration programmes in the cyclone-hit areas.brThe joint assessment said Bangladesh needs $300 million for early recovery, $1,075 million for medium-to-long term recovery and another $4.0 billion for long-term disaster risk reduction.brBangladesh, a hard-hit country by two devastating natural disasters, is fighting to survive against the backdrop of massive food production shortfall. It needs to spend a lot of funds for importing foods particularly rice that have already put pressure on its national budget of this current fiscal 2007-08 seriously.brThe two devastating natural calamity caused a total damage of US$2.8 billion, the government-donor survey said.brThe two devastating calamities compelled the government to revise its gross domestic product growth target to 6.2 per cent form its initial projection o0 7.0 per cent for the previous fiscal. Large expenditure in food, oil and fertiliser import, and rehabilitation and relief operations in the affected areas has had a major negative impact on the national economy.brSome ministries and divisions including agriculture, water resources, local government, fisheries and livestocks are involved in implementing the US$109 million umbrella project. brOut of the proposed $109 million fund, $16 million will be utilised for recovery and improvement of the agricultural sector, $40 million for reconstruction and improvement of multi-purpose cyclone shelters, $20 million for rehabilitation of damaged coastal embankments, $16 million for long-term disaster risk management, $3.0 million for monitoring and evaluation of the project and $14 million for project management.brThe planning division will play the role of coordinator for the umbrella project while relevant ministries and divisions will implement the package development project.br