ADB embarks on $12b lending scheme

The Asian Development Bank has launched a new country partnership strategy (CPS) for Bangladesh with a plan to accelerate lending in order to boost competitiveness, employment, green growth and social protection.

The CPS, which will continue for five years until 2025, will help Bangladesh realise its aspiration of becoming an upper-middle-income country by 2031 through increased public and private investments, said the Manila-based lender in a statement yesterday.

"It will also support rapid socioeconomic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic."

The CPS is the lender's primary platform for designing operations to deliver development results at the country level.

During the five-year period, the ADB will increase its lending operations to $10 billion–$12 billion, from $9.6 billion in the past five years.

"Sustained growth and appropriate policy measures have helped Bangladesh achieve good development outcomes. Moving forward, the country's industry and export base need diversification," said ADB Director General for South Asia Kenichi Yokoyama.

"Diversification in manufacturing and export items, such as agricultural products, information and communication technology, light engineering, and pharmaceuticals, together with increased competitiveness and access to new markets, will be critical in recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, sustaining rapid economic growth, and generating substantial employment."

The lender will further expand its private sector operations and continue to leverage a high level of co-financing with other development partners.

Improving the banking sector, the ease of doing business, business environment, and investment climate will help accelerate private sector development and promote economic diversification, the statement said.

The CPS also envisages enhancing ADB operations to support climate change adaptation and mitigation and disaster risk management to address the country's high vulnerability to climate events and other natural disasters, in line with the Paris Agreement.

A holistic approach to integrating climate change will be applied to all operations while expanding programmes to directly address climate change impacts through integrated management of water, river, and coastal areas, said the development lender.