ADB may give $900m by March next year

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) may provide $900 million to Bangladesh by March next year as the budget support for the country, a senior official of the finance ministry said yesterday.

Of the amount, the multilateral lender may provide $400 million in December to help Bangladesh address challenges that stem from its graduation from the least developed country (LDC) status in 2026.

The rest of the amount, meant for facilitating reforms in the banking sector, will likely be available by next March.

The disclosure came after a senior delegation of the ADB met with Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus and Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed yesterday.

Takeo Konishi, director general for South Asia at the ADB, led the delegation comprising Edimon Ginting, outgoing country director for Bangladesh at the ADB, and Hoe Yun Jeong, country director designate for Bangladesh.

At the meeting with Yunus, the government's newly launched financial sector reforms, key economic issues such as digitalisation of tax systems, data transparency, energy, private sector and investment were discussed, according to a press release.

"We are in a ground zero situation. Everything needs to be done as quickly as possible," Yunus said at the meeting.

He added that the students-led revolution, which ousted the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government on August 5, has given Bangladesh a new opportunity to rebuild its institutions "piece by piece".

ADB's South Asia Director Konishi said the ADB has a long history of working in Bangladesh and would be keen to support the interim government to initiate vital structural reforms in the country.

He said there was room for policy-based lending to Bangladesh as the interim government stepped up efforts to stabilise the economy.

After the meeting with the ADB team, Finance Adviser Ahmed said they also discussed the possibility of supporting climate funds and environment related projects, and also trade and commerce.

"In total, we are zeroing on some of the important short-term measures, such as reforms deliverable to the people. We also discussed mid and long-term plans. Maybe we can start the process," he added.

Ahmed also said they discussed providing budgetary support to Bangladesh by the ADB.

Earlier, the interim government sought $1 billion in budgetary support for the energy and power sector and $1.5 billion for financial sector reforms in an effort to boost the dwindling foreign exchange reserves and take the economy out of turbulent waters.

The interim government has sought a total of $5 billion as additional support from development partners and multilateral lenders, including $3 billion from the International Monetary Fund.