“We understand the importance of Padma Bridge, but we are not funding the bridge as the government has already begun its construction,” Kim said at a joint press briefing after a meeting with Finance Minister AMA Muhith at the Finance Ministry yesterday.
His comment comes about four years after the global lender canceled its $1.2 billion credit in support of the $2.9 billion Padma Multipurpose Bridge project after bringing corruption allegation over the project—the largest ever physical infrastructure of Bangladesh.
The World Bank President said the growth of Bangladesh and all other aspects of the country’s development are extremely important for the World Bank .
“Let me say.. we will plan to aggressively funding into Bangladesh, specially climate change.”
“We will discuss in next two days how World Bank can fund Bangladesh for tackling climate change.”
Finance Minister Muhith said the problems with the World Bank for funding the Padma Bridge is over a few years ago.
“Now, we have good relations…we expect more assistance from the International Development Association of the World Bank,” he said.
In response to similar query,Kim said the global lender will instead spend the $1.2 billion (alocation for bridge funding) for climate-related financing in Bangladesh.
Muhith said: “World Bank is now committed to investing into other development projects .We hope World Bank assistance will be enhanced more than before.”
Thursday, April 25, 2024
