S Korea pledges $50m in soft loan for Covid recovery

South Korea will provide Bangladesh with $50 million in budget support to help the latter's economy recover from Covid-19 shocks.

Two countries signed a loan agreement at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) conference room at the Sher-e-Bangla Nagor in the capital on Monday. 

Md Shahriar Kader Siddiky, ERD additional secretary, and Shin Deog-Yong, executive director of Export-Import Bank of Korea signed the deal on behalf of their respective sides.

The soft loan will be provided under the "Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) for Covid-19 Emergency Response programme". The loan aims to provide budget support for the government of Bangladesh to build systematic policy measures to combat the Covid-19 crisis.  

ERD Secretary Fatima and South Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh LEE Jang-Keun were present during the signing ceremony.  

Korea has responded quickly for supporting the government of Bangladesh in implementing the Countercyclical Programme announced by the prime minister through the EDCF as a budget support with an amount of $50 million.

This amount will be disbursed within 31 December this year by the Korea Exim Bank.   

The EDCF programme loan is a soft loan. The loan rate of interest is .01% and the maturity period is 40 years, including a grace period of 15 years.