Despite a cold rapport with the present government, the World Bank has disbursed an impressive amount of loans in Bangladesh in the last fiscal year 2012-13, a senior official of the government said. ‘Due to the hitch over the Padma Bridge project, some people thought that the World Bank may reduce its assistance in Bangladesh, particularly under the present government. But in reality the development partner has increased its assistance to the country in the last financial year,’ Shamsul Alam, member of the General Economics Division of the Planning Commission told New Age.
Shamsul Alam said the government received a record $ 2.78 billion in foreign assistance during July-June period of 2012-13 fiscal years as the World Bank increased its disbursement of assistance.
Of the amount, the government received $901.99 million from the World Bank alone. Besides, other important development partners like Asian Development Bank disbursed $670.45 million, Japan International Cooperation Agency disbursed $360.43 million, China disbursed $175.69 million, India disbursed $179.48 million and European Union disbursed $68.07 million.
Of the total amount of $2.78 billion, $2.13 billion came in the form of loans and $651.79 million in grants.
Economic Relations Division (ERD) sources said the foreign assistance during the period from July 2012 to June 2013 was up by $660 million from that in the corresponding period of 2011-12 as the World Bank increased its release of foreign assistance.
The $2.78 billion foreign aid also exceeded the annual target by $100 million. In the fiscal 2013, the government had set the foreign assistance target at $ 2.68 billion.
The government had received $409.93 million from the World Bank in 2011-12 fiscal year.
‘If the main programme of the World Bank is to reduce poverty, it cannot reduce its assistance in Bangladesh,’ Shamsul Alam said.
He said Padma Bridge was a single project of the WB and they cannot stop finance to other development projects that help to alleviate poverty in Bangladesh.
Alam also mentioned that Bangladesh contained more than 4.5 crore of poor people which is higher than the total number of poor people in 103 countries in the world.
‘So, I believe the WB will accelerate its future project financing in Bangladesh,’ he said.
Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, chairman of the private think-tank Unnayan Onneshan, said, ‘There was no relation between Padma Bridge and project financing of the World Bank in Bangladesh. They have stopped financing the mega project because of corruption of the government officials.’
‘But the World Bank as a global lending agency will continue to support Bangladesh. It provides loans to countries which are not defaulters. Bangladesh is not a defaulter of any World Bank loans,’ Titumir said.
-With New Age input
