Govt-ADB ink $1.026b loan deal for 5 projects
Staff Reporter :
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday signed multiple agreements with Bangladesh to provide the country with $1.026 billion in loans for five different projects.
The projects are aimed at enhancing energy efficiency, establishing domestic vaccine production, strengthening technology programmes, delivering clean water, and upgrading road infrastructure in Bangladesh.
The agreements were signed by Md Shahriar Kader Siddiky, secretary, Economic Relations Division (ERD), and Edimon Ginting, country director, ADB, signed the loan agreement on behalf of Bangladesh and ADB at a ceremony at the ERD in Dhaka on Tuesday.
Of the amount, $336.5 million loan will be given to help Bangladesh establish domestic vaccine, therapeutics and diagnostics manufacturing capacity and strengthen the national regulator to ensure vaccine supply security in the country under the Vaccines, Therapeutics, and Diagnostics Manufacturing and Regulatory Strengthening Project.
Another $300 million will come from the Manila-based global lender for the upgradation of the Dhaka-Northwest international trade corridor in Bangladesh.
The assistance forms the third tranche of $1.2 billion multi-tranche ADB loans for the Second South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Dhaka-Northwest Corridor Road Project.
Edimon Ginting, country director of ADB, said, “The project will also help accelerate the economic development of the area along the corridor and facilitate sub regional trade with Bhutan, Nepal, and India,”.
The Smart Metering Energy Efficiency Improvement Project taken as part of the government’s efforts to reduce losses by installing 650,000 smart prepaid gas meters for residential customers, primarily in South Dhaka and Narayanganj will get $200 million ADB loan.
Another loan facility by ADB worth $90 million aims to develop infrastructure and systems that will provide clean drinking water and sanitation services in the Chattogram Hill Tracts.
The Chattogram Hill Tracts Inclusive and Resilient Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Project will develop water treatment plants with a total capacity of 44 million litres per day in Bandarban, Lama, and Rangamati towns, as well as 24 km of transmission lines and a new water distribution network spanning 340 km.
