WB reaffirms support to Bangladesh

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Jehangir Hussain

World Bank’s Managing Director of Operations Axel van Trotsenburg on Sunday reaffirmed strong support for Bangladesh to mark 50 years of “fruitful partnership”.

“Bangladesh has made tremendous strides, transforming from one of the world’s poorest countries at independence in 1971 to a lower middle-income country in 2015,” he said.

“The World Bank is proud to be part of this journey as one of Bangladesh’s development partners and we have learned a lot from each other about how development works,” he said.

After inaugurating a photo exhibition depicting the country’s progress in last five decades, Finance Minister AHM MUstafa Kamal, Trotsenburg  and World Bank’s  Vice President for South Asia Martin Raiser joined a panel discussion.

“We are committed to supporting the country through uncertainties and challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and increasing impacts of climate change as the country moves forward to achieve its development goals,” said van Trotsenburg.

In August 1972, Bangladesh became a member of the World Bank Group. In November 1972, the first World Bank project for Bangladesh, a $50 million Emergency Recovery Credit was approved to help the war-torn nation to rebuild  transport and communication, agriculture, industry and power sectors.

The World Bank also reactivated four projects  approved before the Liberation War.

Since then, the World Bank has committed about $39 billion in International Development Association (IDA) financing in the form of grants, interest-free loans and concessional credits to help the country overcome its development challenges.

With about $15.3 billion funding for 53 ongoing projects, Bangladesh has the largest ongoing IDA programme, and the World Bank is its  largest development partner.

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