Bangladesh has sought $500 million in loan from the World Bank (WB) to ensure availability of coronavirus vaccine for its people. In addition, another $250 million has been requested as budget support.
Taking part in a virtual annual meeting of the WB-IMF 2020 held on October 22, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal requested WB officials for the loan assistance.
The money will be used to purchase, store, transport and distribute vaccines in addition to the WB's IDA 19 allocation for Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh delegation led by the Finance Minister also included the Secretary of Finance Ministry and the Secretary of the Economic Relations Division (ERD). The WB delegation, led by Vice President for South Asia Hartwig Schaefer, participated in the virtual meeting.
The meeting also requested for the immediate release of $250 million as budget support in the third instalment of the WB's Development Policy Credit (DPC) project in the current financial year to keep the country's labour market, financial and social sectors affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Finance Secretary Abdur Rauf Talukder said most of the conditions required for the project have already been met and remaining conditions will be met soon for the implementation of the project.
ERD Secretary, Fatima Yasmin said that under IDA-17, Bangladesh Core has demonstrated its ability to take and implement projects at a cost of five billion US dollars from IDA and another two billion US dollars from SUF which is the single highest amount among IDA countries. A request has been made for more allocations in favour of Bangladesh under IDA-19 than in the previous years.
The WB recently approved $100 million funds for Bangladesh in fast-track response to support the country's ailing health facilities to combat the COVID-19 outbreak. Besides, it has called Bangladesh for diverting unutilized funds from the less-necessary development projects to bankroll top priority works for tackling the coronavirus outbreak.
The WB has commitments of providing nearly $13 billion for bankrolling some 45 ongoing development projects in Bangladesh. The Washington-based lender has recently announced that it will provide funds worth $ 160 billion in the next 15 months for combatting the pandemic and also to help economies across the globe to recover from the losses incurred due to the same.
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