Staff Reporter :
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will give $500 million for budget support for 2022-23 fiscal years to Bangladesh for economic recovery.
ADB has provided about $100 crore for budget support to Bangladesh in the last two fiscal years. Bangladesh receives budget support of $500 million from the ADB every year.
The issue of equal budgetary support of the ADB for the current fiscal year has been finalized, Planning Minister MA Mannan said this to journalists after a meeting with ADB’s Country Director Edimon Ginting in the Planning Ministry on Thursday.
Expressing his satisfaction, the Planning Minister said, “We are pleased with the decision
and this loan will be helpful in rehabilitation of the flood affected people in the country.”
The government has succeeded in dealing with the current situation like floods and volatile market prices, he said.
“We have reduced the project costs under the leadership of the Prime Minister. ADB praised the strategy of dividing the projects into three categories. We can get budget support at any time. Besides, there will be some conditions in getting loan which is under discussion. For example, if anyone borrows money and when will be it paid is also a condition,” MA Mannan said in reply to a query.
According to Country Director Edimon Ginting, the budget support will also support the government agendas to accelerate implementations of policies on climate change.
“Challenges coming from the global uncertainty has affected the economy slightly but I think the country is managing it well,” the ADB Country Director said.
When asked regarding the interest rate of the loan, Edimon Ginting replied, “For now, it has been fixed at 0.5 per cent. Bangladesh will have a grace period of three years and the country will get 15 years to repay the loan.”
However, both the ADB country director and the Planning Minister have said that the terms of the loan are not yet concrete. There might be some alterations following discussions regarding the matter.
The present global economic instability poses many challenges and Bangladesh doing well to manage financial management to meet these challenges.
They also discussed for taking up an urgent project for the development of flood-damaged infrastructure in Haor area.
