Development partners and donor countries have released more than $10 billion in loans and aid to Bangladesh in 2021-22, a record for a financial year in the country’s history.
Bangladesh brought in the funds for development projects, which is 26 per cent more than the preceding fiscal year.
In terms of financing, the Asian Development Bank topped the list, followed by Japan and the World Bank, according to a report published by the Economic Relations Division or ERD on Wednesday.
In the 2020-21 financial year, development agencies and partner countries supplied nearly $8 billion to Bangladesh, reports bdnews24.com.
Economic Relations Secretary Sharifa Khan said, “Progress in the ongoing projects, those financed by foreign sources in particular, drastically gained pace in the last financial year with the COVID crisis abating.”
“As the funds tied to those projects began swelling, we were able to reach the $10 billion milestone.”
The funds received from foreign sources surpassed the target by almost $1.8 billion.
A top ERD official said a significant amount of last year’s overseas finances was for supporting the national budget as Bangladesh had agreements with the World Bank and ADB to keep the country’s economy stable during the Covid-19 crisis.
Finances from these two organisations accumulated huge foreign funding at the end of the year, he said.
The ERD report mentioned that the ADB funded $2.56 billion, Japan $2.2 billion and the World Bank $1.66 billion last fiscal year.
Russia, on the other hand, delivered $1.22 billion in funds solely for the construction of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Project, while the Chinese government supplied $1 billion for different projects.
India provided $324.1 million, the seventh-highest.
Other agencies and countries funded $709.1 million combined.
Bangladesh paid up $2.01 billion in dues last financial year, which is almost $100 million more than the previous year.
