The World Bank’s disbursement stood at US$512m in the first eight months of the current financial year, which is higher compared to previous years, says a press release yesterday.
Its disbursement financing for Annual Development Program witnessed an upward trend in the last four years. Since independence, the World Bank has provided more than $17bn support to Bangladesh and helped the country to significantly reduce poverty and boost shared prosperity.
To further enhance the pace of project implementation and accelerate disbursements, the government and the WB jointly completed a two-day portfolio review of WB’s selected operations in Bangladesh yesterday.
The WB’s current portfolio in Bangladesh consists of 31 IDA (International Development Association) projects and 12 Trust Fund projects with a total commitment of $7bn.
The government and the WB concluded review of 22 projects, including a mix of IDA supported projects as well as Trust Funded operations, a diverse group of sectors and performance trends.
The review highlighted the successes of high performing projects, monitored lessons learned from projects nearing completion, addressed implementation arrangements for projects that have been recently restructured, reviewed key implementation challenges for slow moving projects, and agreed time-bound action plans with a view to improve performance and accelerate disbursements.
“The World Bank is proud to partner with the government of Bangladesh over the last 40 years. We are encouraged to see results in many areas that have transformed the lives of millions of people in the country,” said Christine E. Kimes, operations Adviser, World Bank Bangladesh.
“At the same time, the speed and quality of implementation needs to be improved in others to achieve results. During the joint review, we highlighted the successes of well performing projects and came up with pragmatic solutions for speeding up implementation of slow moving projects.”
The meeting discussions brought together project directors, line ministry representatives, Economic Relations Division officers and World Bank staff including Bangladesh Country Director Johannes Zutt.