AIIB to provide $4.5 billion to Bangladesh
The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will provide $4.5 billion to Bangladesh in the next five years as Bangladesh seeks softer terms and conditions to facilitate climate-resilient infrastructure in the country.
The assurance came at the 8th annual meeting of the AIIB that took place on September 25 and 26 at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, according to a finance ministry press release yesterday.
Sharifa Khan, secretary of the Economic Relation Division, led the Bangladeshi side in the meeting.
The $4.5 billion loan will help finance various projects including climate-resilient infrastructure in the country, the press release said.
The AIIB has so far provided a total of $3.27 billion in loans for 18 projects to Bangladesh after making its first investment in 2016 in a power sector project.
On the sidelines of the annual meeting, the Bangladesh delegation met with Urjit Patel, AIIB's vice-president for Investment Operations (Region 1) where he oversees all sovereign and non-sovereign operations in South Asia, the Pacific Islands and South East Asia.
At the meeting, Khan called for making AIIB's loan conditions more lenient given the current reality.
At present, loans from AIIB come at market-based rates, which used to be manageable thanks to the LIBOR being around 1.5 percent. LIBOR has been replaced by SOFR from July 1 and SOFR is now upwards of 5 percent.
At the annual meeting, Khan made a strong call for more funding to build climate-resilient infrastructure given the climate challenges being faced by all, be it developed or developing countries.
"Developing countries like Bangladesh are most vulnerable to climate change," she said, while calling for a bigger role of AIIB to avert an impending crisis.
AIIB President and Board Chairman Jin Liquin said the development bank will stand by its members to face the upcoming climate challenges.
Comments