Special Correspondent :
The government has sought $2.40 billion aid from six development partners to cope with the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus as well as support for its stimulus package.
Official sources said, the Economic Relations Division (ERD) has already started communication with the development partners, including the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The fund has been sought as ‘soft term loan.
“We have already engaged talks with the donor agencies for the financial assistance,” a senior ERD official told The New Nation on Sunday, asking not to be named.
He said, the fund has been sought as budget assistance and it would be utilized to support the government’s stimulus package, subsidy payment, and various aid programmes.
Earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced stimulus packages nearly for Tk 100,000 crore to counter the adverse effects of coronavirus on the country’s economy.
The total amount of financial assistance would stand at nearly 2.52 per cent of the country’s GDP.
It has been learned that the government has sought $750 million in financial backing from International Monetary Fund, another $750 million from World Bank, $500 million from Asian Development Bank and $250 million from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and $150 million from other donor agencies to support its biggest-ever stimulus package.
“The country needs financial assistance from the development partners when it faces huge deficit in revenue and does not have enough financial resources to mobilize funds to support package,” Dr Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director at the Policy Research Institute, told The New Nation.
When asked, he said the authorities have put too much emphasis on the economic recovery in the package rather containing COVID-19 and food security of 40 million poor people.
Bangladesh reported 312 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Sunday, bringing the tally to of 2,456, including 91 fatalities. The country confirmed its first case on March 8.
