Infrastructure vital to growth
Says WB chief economist
UNB
The World Bank is strongly committed to continue working with Bangladesh and the lending agency wants to engage more in the infrastructure sector of Bangladesh, reports UNB.
The World Bank chief economist for the South Asia Region Martin Rama said this when he met Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal at his office yesterday.
The World Bank chief economist for this region said that by now, Bangladesh is the biggest recipient of IDA, the World Banks concessionary arm against various projects.
The country (Bangladesh) has success stories in many ways and were proud of that and we hope that this engagement would improve in the coming days, he added.
Asked whether the decision of the World Bank of withdrawing funding from the Padma Bridge project was wrong, Martin said that Padma Bridge is a very important investment for Bangladesh not giving any specific answer to this question.
He however, said that the lending agency strongly wants to engage more in the infrastructure sector in Bangladesh because these are the constraints on the growth and development of the country.
The World Bank official also informed that work is underway to frame the new country partnership framework between the World Bank and Bangladesh.
Planning Minister AHM Musafa Kamal said that the partnership of World Bank with Bangladesh would grow stronger in the coming days.
He said that over the last five years, the World Banks commitment to Bangladesh reached $9 billion while the Washington-based lending agency is expected to come up with bigger support in the countrys infrastructure sector including power and energy, communication and ICT.
AHM Mustafa Kamal, commonly known as Lotus Kamal, said that for the year 2016, the World Bank has already committed $ 1.76 billion to Bangladesh against 11 projects.
Regarding Padma Bridge project, he said that the government is going ahead in this regard with its own funds and its a matter of pride for the nation.
