WB support for environmental dev, protection sought

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has sought the World Bank's cooperation for sustainable environmental development and its protection.

The finance minister sought the World Bank support to implement the proposed "Ecological Restoration Support to Rivers and Canals around Dhaka" project in order to create eco-friendly infrastructure for the development of river-centric tourism, says a finance ministry press release.

The finance minister made the request at a virtual meeting between Bangladesh and the World Bank on Monday evening, organised as part of the ongoing World Bank-IMF Spring Meeting 2021. At the meeting, the Bangladesh delegation was led by Mustafa Kamal and the World Bank delegation was led by its Vice-President for South Asia Hartwig Schafer.

Kamal also called for $500 million budget support for addressing the impact of Covid pandemic and for technical and vocational education projects for female students to increase women's participation in the workplace. In response, the World Bank assured to look at these issues in a positive way.

Finance minister, Senior Secretary of Finance Ministry Abdur Rouf Talukder and Secretary for Economic Relations Fatima Yasmin participated in the discussion as a member of the Bangladesh delegation while Hartwig Schafer and Mercy Miyang Tembon participated on behalf of the WB.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Hon'ble Finance Minister thanked the World Bank for its continued support for the overall development of Bangladesh. The Hon'ble Finance Minister also lauded the rapid and timely initiatives taken by the World Bank to address the Kovid-19 epidemic.

At the beginning of the meeting, the finance minister thanked the World Bank for its continued support for the overall development of Bangladesh. He also lauded the rapid and timely initiatives taken by the World Bank to address the Covid-19 epidemic.

He also thanked the World Bank for its support – under the bank's Programmatic Jobs Development Policy Credit (DPC) project – to keep the country's labour, financial and social sectors affected by the ongoing corona epidemic, and for the $500 million fund for Covid-19 vaccine.

The minister noted that although Bangladesh was affected like all other countries in the world by the corona pandemic, the economy of Bangladesh is now in a better position under the wise and far-sighted leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Realising the gravity of this crisis at the very beginning of the pandemic, the prime minister has announced a total of 23 incentive packages worth Tk1,24,053 crore for the people of different strata of society. It is undoubtedly a rare and bold step in history.

He also mentioned the launching of a free Covid-19 vaccination campaign for all citizens of Bangladesh.