Bangladesh is likely to seek US$500 million more in budgetary support from the World Bank at the upcoming IMF-WB spring meeting in Washington, as the government eyes yet a bigger budget.
Besides, an extended support may also be requested from WB's $93 billion three-year IDA-20 package, to be implemented during the fiscal year (FY) 2022-23 to FY2025, officials said Friday.
Since the WB has yet to confirm Bangladesh's proposed assistance from the three-year IDA-20 package, the government delegation will moot the request for extended assistance at the meet, said a senior Economic Relations Division (ERD) official.
The UN development financier last December announced a $93 billion replenishment package of the International Development Association (IDA) to help low-income countries respond to the COVID-19 crisis and build "a greener, more resilient, and inclusive future".
In the last IDA-19 aid package, Bangladesh had received confirmation of some $4.2 billion worth of assistance, the ERD officials said.
A Bangladesh delegation, headed by the Bangladesh Bank Governor, will join the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank (WB) spring meeting in Washington, DC, in the United States.
The 2022 Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group (WBG) will be held on April 18-24.
"We'll have a separate meeting with some high executives of the WB and the IMF on the sidelines of the spring meeting. We will request the global lender for extending Bangladesh the proposed support," says the ERD official.
"Since the $93 billion IDA-20 aid package would focus on climate-change victims and Covid-19 recovery programmes, we would seek $500 million more in budget support on climate change in addition to the ongoing budgetary support the global lender has already assured," he adds.
Recently, the WB Board approved $250 million worth of budgetary support for Bangladesh as the Development Policy Credit (DPC) for coronavirus resilience and restoration programme.
Another amount of $250 million DPC is expected to be provided in the next FY2023 for the Covid resilience and restoration programme, ERD officials said.
Another ERD official said: "Since Bangladesh is the largest IDA borrower of the WB and its utilization capacity is high, we will seek higher funds for developing our infrastructure and socioeconomic conditions."
The government needs more investments in infrastructure-development works where the WB could come forward with extended package, he added.
Besides, he further mentions, Bangladesh wants to improve its regional connectivity with the neighbouring nations where the WB support is very imperative.
According to the World Bank statistics, the WB in last FY2021 confirmed $2.12 billion worth of assistance for bankrolling the country's development recipe.
In the current FY2022, the WB has so far confirmed $1.40 billion worth of aid to Bangladesh, the country which is in the process of graduating from the LDC status and makes ambitious budgets annually-this time sights set on an around Tk 7.0-trillion outlay for the next fiscal.
The country's current 2021-22 budget size is over Tk 6.4 trillion (Tk 6 lakh 3 thousand 681 crore), in line with the budgeting crescendo despite the pandemic setbacks.
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