The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has offered a $338 million loan to Bangladesh for manufacturing vaccines, which will give people more protection against various diseases.
ADB Country Director Edimon Ginting shared this at a meeting with Planning Minister MA Mannan at the latter's office in the capital on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mannan said, “The government has initiated the draft project for producing vaccines locally, to boost protection against diseases such as Covid-19 and dengue.
“As time passes by, many new diseases and viruses could attack mankind, for which there is a need to take early preparations. For this, the project is being taken.”
Mannan added, “The ADB in the meeting offered a $338 million loan for the project. Of this amount, half would be at low interest rate, while the other half would have regular interest rate.
“The ADB has requested the government to speedily approve the project. In response, we assured him of our sincere efforts to approve the project at the earliest.”
The planning minister then stated, “The ADB country director has informed me that the last fiscal year went good for the ADB, and himself in Bangladesh in terms of working environment, disbursements, project implementation and loan approvals.”
Meanwhile, ADB Country Director Edimon Ginting said, “This initiative for financing the project for manufacturing vaccines was taken to help Bangladesh reduce dependency on vaccine imports, and facilitate vaccine production in the country.”
“The total cost of the project is around $351 million. After LDC graduation, Bangladesh will not be able to purchase vaccines at a rate lower than the market value, and for this the country needs to enhance its capacity in vaccine production.”
To enhance the capacity of the government of Bangladesh in vaccine production, this project is being taken up, and we want this project to be approved in a speedy manner.
Ginting also informed that the ADB committed $3.5 billion financing to Bangladesh in the current FY, of which around $2 billion would be concessional, while the rest of $1.5 billion would be regular.
