Business Desk :
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched a new country partnership strategy (CPS) for Bangladesh that aims to boost competitiveness, employment, and private sector development.
The CPS for 2021-2025 will help Bangladesh realize its aspiration of becoming an upper middle-income country by 2031 through increased public and private investments in the next 5 years.
It will also support rapid socioeconomic recovery from the pandemic.
During this period, ADB will increase its lending operations to $10 billion-$12 billion, from $9.6 billion in the past 5 years.
“Sustained growth and appropriate policy measures have helped Bangladesh achieve good development outcomes. Moving forward, the country’s industry and export base need diversification,” said ADB Director General for South Asia Kenichi Yokoyama.
“Diversification in manufacturing and export items, such as agricultural products, information and communication technology, light engineering, and pharmaceuticals, together with increased competitiveness and access to new markets, will be critical in recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, sustaining rapid economic growth, and generating substantial employment.”
ADB will further expand its private sector operations in Bangladesh and continue to leverage a high level of cofinancing with other development partners. Improving the banking sector, the ease of doing business, business environment, and investment climate will help accelerate private sector development and promote economic diversification.
The CPS also envisages enhancing ADB operations to support climate change adaptation and mitigation, and disaster risk management to address the country’s high vulnerability to climate events and other natural disasters, in line with the Paris Agreement.
