World Bank Group's Managing Director Anna Bjerde concluded her first visit to Bangladesh on Sunday, when she emphasized on taming Bangladesh's high inflation, as well as reforming the monetary and fiscal policies to sustain inclusive growth.
During her visit, she met with the country's policymakers, emphasized that Bangladesh needed to go through these necessary reforms to get $16 billion under the promised 50 projects.
She met with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and also engaged with Finance Minister AH Mahmood Ali, Governor of Bangladesh Bank Abdur Rouf Talukder, other policymakers, and members of the business community.
She was accompanied by the World Bank Vice-President for the South Asia Region Martin Raiser.
“We talked about the most important measures in order to address inflation and we can support that through a number of instruments that we have and we're looking forward to going forward to finalizing some of our assessments together in supporting these reforms,” Bjerde said.
“Fast and bold reforms in monetary and fiscal policies will enable Bangladesh to maintain macroeconomic stability, reduce financial sector risks, and sustain inclusive growth amid global uncertainties,” she also said.
"It is important to control inflation in Bangladesh - the initiatives the government has taken to control inflation has been discussed - and the World Bank will continue to support the government in controlling inflation.”
“Other reforms that we talked about are very important in the financial sector. We talked about making sure a strong social protection and a strong social safety net in place with some of these reforms to adjust economic parameters to protect the people who might be the most affected. Overall there was a very good discussion.”
Regarding World Bank's projects, the World Bank MD said that the ongoing development projects they fund will be completed quickly. Besides, the projects stuck in the pipeline were also urged to restart.
Anna Bjerde further said: “I should say that we are very confident that Bangladesh would come out of this difficult patch especially given that Bangladesh has a very successful track record in reducing poverty and in implementing projects that have helped the population at large.”
She also reiterated the World Bank’s strong support to help Bangladesh achieve its vision of upper-middle income status by 2031.
Pending projects
Anna Bjerde said: “Bangladesh will get new funds as soon as the World Bank-funded projects will be implemented.”
During the meetings, the World Bank and the government discussed a financing program of over $650 million for two new projects to address the needs of both the Rohingya population and the host communities in Chittagong.
A little less than half of the financing will be utilized for the displaced Rohingya people and will be entirely on grant terms.
“I am very proud of our long-standing partnership with Bangladesh that has helped lift millions of people out of poverty. We will continue supporting Bangladesh to create jobs, develop a robust private sector, attract investment, and build resilience to climate shocks and future crises while at the same time ensuring that no one is left behind,” Bjerde added.
She also acknowledged Bangladesh’s ongoing development. She acknowledged that, today, almost all children—boys and girls—go to school and nearly every household has electricity.
She also thanked the prime minister for sheltering displaced Rohingya people and pledged to support Bangladesh in addressing their needs until their safe and voluntary return, as well as those of the host community.
Currently, Bangladesh has the largest ongoing IDA program in the world, and the World Bank is Bangladesh’s largest development partner.
Since Bangladesh’s independence, the World Bank has committed about $41 billion in International Development Association (IDA) financing in the form of grants, interest-free loans, and concessional credits.
