USD 1.05 Billion Approved by World Bank for 3 Projects in Bangladesh

The World Bank has announced on 19^th June 2020 that it had approved a USD 1.05 billion for helping the economy of Bangladesh to bounce back by creating more and better jobs. Bangladesh to date has received financial aid of more than USD 13 billion of loans from the International Development Association (IDA, a part of the World Bank Group). With this grant, the total loan provided by the World Bank Group to Bangladesh since its independence in 1971 has crossed USD 31 billion. The financial aid for the 3 projects is provided by the IDA on behalf of the World Bank Group.

3 Projects

• Private Investment and Digital Entrepreneurship (PRIDE) is the name of the first project. For this project, USD 500 million has been sanctioned. The project is estimated to create more than 1.5 lakh jobs and further expected to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) worth Rs USD 2 billion. At the Janata Software Park, Dhaka’s first digital entrepreneurship hub will be established under this project.
• The second project is named Enhancing Digital Government and Economy (EDGE). This project will create 100 thousand jobs and will also assist the MSME sector in preparing for the fourth industrial revolution. Further, an integrated cloud computing digital platform will be set up for all government agencies of the country. The financial grant provided by the World Bank for this project is USD 295 million.
• USD 250 million was sanctioned for the 2^nd Programmatic Jobs Development Policy Credit (Financial Grant of USD 250 million were provided by the World Bank Group in December 2019 for the 1^st Programmatic Jobs Development Policy Credit).  The World Bank Group will provide financial aid for a total of 3 planned Programmatic Jobs Development Policy Credit. This 3 part project focuses on creating an institutional framework that will have stronger policies to create jobs for all the members of the population.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2020