The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced plans to provide $5 billion in aid to Bangladesh over the next five years. At the same time, the organization has also announced to increase the annual loan assistance to Bangladesh by about 20 percent.
ADB President Masato Kanda highlighted these issues in a meeting with Prime Minister Tariq Rahman on Monday morning. Finance Minister Amir Khusru Mahmud Chowdhury and Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary ABM Abdus Sattar were also present during the meeting.
In this regard, an ADB circular said, during the visit of the ADB president, a loan agreement of about 1.4 billion dollars was also signed under the annual commitment program of 2026.
ADB President Masato Kanda said, ‘Bangladesh is now entering an important new phase.
ADB will help maintain the stability achieved, create new sources of growth and build a more diversified and resilient economy.’
According to ADB, this five billion dollar assistance will be given over the next five years under a new program called ‘Integrated Growth Network Development Initiative’. Its aim is to increase investment, create employment, improve connectivity and reduce regional disparities to ensure balanced growth.According to the plan, the funding will average about one billion dollars a year.
This will be included within the framework of ADB’s enhanced annual lending assistance to Bangladesh.
Currently ADB’s annual sovereign debt commitment to Bangladesh is about $2 billion. The company plans to increase it to about $2.4 billion in the medium term. ADB said the additional financing will support investment-led growth, employment, economic diversification, good governance and transition from the list of Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
ADB will provide an additional $250 million to Bangladesh to support fuel oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG), fertilizer and transportation costs in the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.
ADB also said that $2 million technical assistance will also be provided to support the implementation of Bangladesh’s medium-term development framework.
