Kamal seeks WB support to attain development goals

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Sunday reiterated his appeal to the development partners including the World Bank (WB) to continue their support to Bangladesh to attain its various development goals.

“Our next target is to turn Bangladesh into a higher mid-income country by 2031 and a smart development country by 2041. We seek all-out support from our development partners including from the World Bank in this regard,” he said.

The finance minister was addressing a function as chief guest marking the celebration of 50 years of partnership between Bangladesh and the World Bank held at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the capital, reports Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha.

Visiting World Bank managing director (operations) Aaxel van Trotsenburg, Vice President for South Asia region Martin Raiser, World Bank country director Abdoulaye Seck and ERD Secretary Sharifa Khan spoke on the occasion.

Mentioning that Bangladesh joined as a member of the World Bank under the leadership of Father of the Nation in August 1972, Kamal said with the passage of time the GDP size of Bangladesh has increased by 74 times in the last 50 years to reach $465 billion.

He mentioned that Bangladesh is now the 35th largest economy of the world with increased per capita income and life expectancy.

The finance minister noted that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been the architect of modern Bangladesh.

The World Bank managing director reaffirmed strong support for Bangladesh as he marked the 50th anniversary 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,” said van Trotsenburg. 

He said The World Bank is proud to be part of this journey as one of Bangladesh’s first development partners adding, “We’ve learned a lot from each other about how development works.”

They inaugurated a photo exhibition depicting the country’s remarkable progress over the past five decades and joined a panel discussion. The events provided an opportunity to recognize the country’s remarkable development achievements and to look forward to realizing the country’s vision to become an upper-middle-income country by 2031.

The World Bank managing director said Bangladesh, as many other countries in the world, is coping with unprecedented global shocks.

“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,” added Trotsenburg.

ERD Secretary Sharifa Khan said that over the last 50 years, the World Bank has committed over $39 billion out of which over $27 billion has so far been disbursed.

She said currently some 53 projects are going on with the World Bank finance while the current portfolio of the lending agency in Bangladesh is around $15 billion which is around 32 percent of the total current foreign assistance to Bangladesh.

The ERD secretary requested the World Bank to align the Country Partnership Framework (CPF) of the World Bank with the government’s policies and development priorities.

Citing that the cost of borrowings has increased abruptly to over 4 percent which could hold back the country’s development trajectory, Sharifa also called upon the development partners to come up with pragmatic solutions.

She also opined that the possible budget support would play an important role in addressing the challenges of the country.

World Bank managing director Alex van Trotsenburg, Alternate executive director of Bangladesh to the World Bank Dr Ahmad Kaikaus, BUILD Chairperson Nihad Kabir, renowned economist Dr Ahsan H Mansur, Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) Vice President Junaid Kamal Ahmed spoke at a panel discussion moderated by the Martin Raiser.

Dr Ahmad Kaikaus said Bangladesh has made remarkable progress over the years, but the Russia-Ukraine war is affecting the country’s growth trajectory more than the pandemic.

Dr Ahsan H Mansur said that although Bangladesh has made tremendous achievements over the years, the country has to face some short, mid and long-term challenges.

He also suggested making the interest rate and exchange rate on the market based alongside making some fundamental reforms in tax policy and in tax administration.

Junaid Kamal said that over the next one decade, there has to be a very healthy investment in Bangladesh to accelerate the development stride.

Barrister Nihar Kabir said that although Bangladesh has performed well in terms of dealing with the pandemic, there is no way to be complacent.

She suggested the government focus more on increasing the competitiveness, skilling up the Human Resources, addressing the delay in supply chain management and the procedural delay in Chattogram port.

In the five decades of this remarkable journey, the World Bank remained a steadfast partner of Bangladesh. 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 the transport and communication, agriculture, and industry sector with some support to the construction and power sector. At the same time, the World Bank reactivated four more projects that had been 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 in financing for 53 ongoing projects, currently Bangladesh has the largest ongoing IDA program, and the World Bank is Bangladesh’s largest development partner.