Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice President (Operations 1) Shixin Chen has said that like in the past, the lending agency will always stand beside Bangladesh in its development strides.
“The ADB has supported Bangladesh from the very beginning in making social and economic recovery of the country from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic," he said during a virtual meeting with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday, said a Finance Ministry press release.
The finance minister extended his thanks to the ADB vice president for supporting Bangladesh in a prompt manner to overcome the adverse impacts of Covid-19.
Kamal mentioned that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already announced stimulus packages worth $15.11 billion to overcome the shocks of the pandemic.
One of the major development partners of the country, the ADB has so far extended $27.5 billion in support to Bangladesh.
After the pandemic hit the country, the Manila-based lending agency has come up with $500 million budget support, $250 million policy support, $100 million in the health sector for Covid-19 Response Emergency Assistance, $9.34 million as grant assistance to face Covid-19 and $940 million for procuring vaccines.
The ADB mainly supports Bangladesh in power, energy, transport, education, local government, agriculture, water resources, good governance, financial and private sectors.
Senior Secretary of the Finance Division Abdur Rouf Talukder, Economic Relations Division Secretary Fatima Yasmin, ADB Country Director Manmohan Parkash and other high officials of the Ministry of Finance and ADB joined the meeting virtually.
Meanwhile, the finance minister had another virtual meeting on Thursday with New Development Bank (NDB) President Marcos Troyjo.
Highlighting the unprecedented development of Bangladesh in different fields over the last one era under the able leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Kamal said the demand for foreign assistance is increasing for Bangladesh day by day in line with the growing development activities.
In this connection, he mentioned that attainment of the NDB membership by Bangladesh would be beneficial for both the bank and the country.
Kamal noted that financing from the NDB would play an important role to turn Bangladesh into a happy and prosperous country by 2041.
Terming the recent developments achieved by Bangladesh "excellent", the NDB president assured the finance minister of standing beside Bangladesh in fulfilling its development goals.
The NDB is a multilateral bank formed with the initiatives of the BRICS countries like Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa and the bank extends support in various development sectors including in physical and social infrastructures.
After its inception, the NDB has extended more than $30 billion in support to its member countries over the period of more than five years.
Finance Division Senior Secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder and ERD Secretary Fatima Yasmin joined the meeting virtually, among others.
