Business Desk :
The Bangladesh government and Asian Development Bank (ADB) at a tripartite portfolio review meeting (TPRM) on Monday agreed actions to further accelerate implementation of ADB-assisted projects for boosting socio-economic recovery.
Kenichi Yokoyama, Director General for ADB’s South Asia Department in his opening remarks appreciated macroeconomic management and policies of Bangladesh for expeditious socio-economic recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. He thanked Bangladesh government for continued strong partnership and conveyed ADB’s readiness to work together in developing innovative and transformative solutions to address climate challenges and generate strong economic recovery with high inclusiveness, and economic diversification. To further improve project implementation, DG Yokoyama also emphasised better project readiness, reduction of procurement time and timely completion and closing of the projects with high discipline.
Fatima Yasmin, Secretary, Economic Relations Division (ERD) and Edimon Ginting, ADB Country Director for Bangladesh, co-chaired the TPRM. Deputy Director General for South Asia Department Manmohan Parkash, ADB’s Alternate Executive Director Md Azizul Alam, senior officials from the Bangladesh government, project directors and ADB staff participated in-person as well as virtually in the first review meeting in 2022 for resolving project issues and formulating strategies to quicken project implementation. With positive outlook after the COVID-19 pandemic, Country Director Edimon Ginting encouraged all to set higher expectation and project targets for 2022. “Faster project implementation will not only improve the public service delivery but will also help accelerate socio-economic recovery from the pandemic-induced losses,” Mr Ginting added.
The TPRM reviewed the progress of actions agreed in August 2021, readiness status of 2022 pipeline projects, and upstream knowledge work. During the TPRM, 42 selected projects were discussed on 113 different issues and over 130 specific time bound actions were agreed.
