Business Desk :
World Bank (WB) Vice President for South Asia Region, Hartwig Schafer on Thursday lauded Bangladesh for her significant achievements in the areas of reducing poverty, disaster preparedness and improving infrastructures and human development indicators.
“Bangladesh has taken a leading role in reducing poverty, improving human development indicators, and disaster preparedness. Other countries can learn from the Bangladesh’s innovative development ideas. There is no reason why, with the right set of policies and timely actions, the country cannot become the next Asian Tiger. The World Bank is committed to support this journey,” Schafer said in a statement as he concluded his visit to Bangladesh on Thursday.
The statement said the World Bank was among the first development partners to support Bangladesh following its independence. Since then, the World Bank has committed more than $29 billion in grants and interest-free credits to the country.
On the last day of his weeklong visit, he travelled to Ghorashal Power Plant, where the World Bank is helping improve efficiency and double electricity generation capacity.
“The World Bank is helping Bangladesh achieve its growth aspirations through addressing critical barriers to growth such as energy, transport, and urban development as well as investing in human capital,” Schafer said.
“In the power sector, we have a strong and expanding program encompassing generation, distribution, transmission as well as expansion in renewable energy.
This helped adding about 2,000 MW electricity to the national grid, and by the end of this year, another 475 MW will be added to the grid.”
In Dhaka, he participated in the launch of a World Bank report entitled “South Asia’s Hotspots: the impact of temperature and precipitations changes on living standards”.
Making his first visit to Bangladesh as the World Bank Vice President for South Asia, he also met with the Finance Minister, the Water Recourse Minister and other senior government officials as well as with private sector and civil society representatives.
World Bank (WB) Vice President for South Asia Region, Hartwig Schafer on Thursday lauded Bangladesh for her significant achievements in the areas of reducing poverty, disaster preparedness and improving infrastructures and human development indicators.
“Bangladesh has taken a leading role in reducing poverty, improving human development indicators, and disaster preparedness. Other countries can learn from the Bangladesh’s innovative development ideas. There is no reason why, with the right set of policies and timely actions, the country cannot become the next Asian Tiger. The World Bank is committed to support this journey,” Schafer said in a statement as he concluded his visit to Bangladesh on Thursday.
The statement said the World Bank was among the first development partners to support Bangladesh following its independence. Since then, the World Bank has committed more than $29 billion in grants and interest-free credits to the country.
On the last day of his weeklong visit, he travelled to Ghorashal Power Plant, where the World Bank is helping improve efficiency and double electricity generation capacity.
“The World Bank is helping Bangladesh achieve its growth aspirations through addressing critical barriers to growth such as energy, transport, and urban development as well as investing in human capital,” Schafer said.
“In the power sector, we have a strong and expanding program encompassing generation, distribution, transmission as well as expansion in renewable energy.
This helped adding about 2,000 MW electricity to the national grid, and by the end of this year, another 475 MW will be added to the grid.”
In Dhaka, he participated in the launch of a World Bank report entitled “South Asia’s Hotspots: the impact of temperature and precipitations changes on living standards”.
Making his first visit to Bangladesh as the World Bank Vice President for South Asia, he also met with the Finance Minister, the Water Recourse Minister and other senior government officials as well as with private sector and civil society representatives.
