Business Desk :
The World Bank has stressed the need for bringing more dynamism to designing projects, processing, approval, and every stage of implementation in Bangladesh.
World Bank Vice-president for South Asia Hartwig Schafer proposed for taking initiatives, in coordination among the Economic Relations Division (ERD), project implementing ministries and divisions, and the World Bank, to implement the projects on time.
He came up with the recommendation during a meeting with a team of the finance ministry at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka, said a press release issued by the ministry on Sunday.
Schafer led the WB delegation, while Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal led the host side.
After the meeting, Schafer said in a Tweeter message that they discussed green, resilient, and inclusive recovery of Bangladesh from the pandemic.
They also talked about key development priorities and the WB’s support through its upcoming partnership framework that will guide its engagement in Bangladesh, he said.
In the meeting, the finance minister said as per conventional rule, a loan is usually given against a project.
But it is often seen that the project may not be ready, and it takes a lot of time to prepare the project. As a result, the process slows.
To overcome the slow execution, the minister requested the WB to provide project loans in the form of budget support.
If the lender does so, the government would be able to release funds on a priority basis for the projects that are ready, and the pace of the project would be accelerated, Kamal said.
In the meeting, Bangladesh requested the WB to take necessary steps for quick release of $500 million as the budgetary support in the current fiscal year under its Programmatic Recovery and Resilience Development Policy Credit project.
The project aims at keeping the country’s labour market, financial and social sectors, affected by the pandemic, active.
