Top official of World Bank in town

Kyle Peters, senior vice president for operations at World Bank, arrived in Dhaka yesterday to deepen the longstanding partnership between Bangladesh and the World Bank.

During his two-day visit, Peters will meet with senior government officials, including the finance minister, as well as private sector and civil society leaders, the World Bank said in a statement.

He will also visit several World Bank-supported projects in Bangladesh.

“Bangladesh is globally recognised for its remarkable progress in reducing poverty, despite daunting challenges,” Peters said. “I look forward to discussing Bangladesh's rich development experience, from which other countries can learn.”

 “Bangladesh still faces many challenges, and its people want to do better,” he said. “As we are preparing the Country Partnership Framework for Bangladesh, we will explore how the World Bank Group can work closely with the government to make economic development more inclusive and address the bottlenecks hindering growth.”

Bangladesh is the largest recipient of support from the International Development Association, the World Bank's fund for the poorest countries.

In the 2015 financial year, the World Bank committed $1.9 billion in new financing to advance Bangladesh's development agenda. The World Bank's current IDA portfolio in Bangladesh stands at nearly $8.3 billion with 36 projects.