The Asian Development Bank is likely to disburse around $900 million in the next six months as it expressed keen interest to cooperate with the interim government of Bangladesh.
Of the sum, $400 billion as budget support will be disbursed in December and $500 million as the first installment of $1.5 billion loan for the reform on energy and power sector in March, said Economic Relations Division officials.
A discussion on an extra $1 billion sought by the interim government as budget support was also held when a senior delegation of the Asian Development Bank, led by its South Asia director general Takeo Konishi, called on finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed on Sunday at the Secretariat.
More discussions are likely to be held in future to finalise the extra $1 billion budget support, said the ERD officials.
The finance adviser while talking to reporters said that they had discussed about reforms in the financial sector and environmental issues.
Calling the ADB the second largest development partner of the country, he hoped that the bank would continue its cooperation with Bangladesh.
The discussion also included short-term and long-term cooperation plans, the adviser added.
Responding to a question on the disbursement of $400 million as budget support in December, the finance adviser said that they had a fruitful discussion on it.
He, however, did not reveal any further details on the discussion in this regard.
ERD officials said that the interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus needed additional financial assistance from the multilateral lender to overcome the economic crisis left behind by the Awami League regime ousted amid a student-led mass uprising on August 5.
Besides the ADB, the interim government has sought extra $3 billion loan form the International Monetary Fund and $1 billion from the World Bank.
Earlier, ADB South Asia director general Takeo Konishi also called on chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at the State Guest House Jamuna, according to a press release from the chief adviser鈥檚 office on the day.聽
The director general said that 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.
Konishi said that there was room for policy-based lending to Bangladesh as the interim government stepped up efforts to stabilise the economy.
Professor Yunus said that the student-led revolution had given Bangladesh a new opportunity to rebuild the institutions 鈥榩iece by piece.鈥�
鈥榃e鈥檙e in a ground zero situation. Everything needs to be done as quickly as possible,鈥� the chief adviser told the ADB delegation.
During the meeting, the government鈥檚 newly launched financial sector reforms and key economic issues, including digitalisation of the tax data, data transparency, energy, private sector, and investment, were discussed.
Lutfey Siddiqi, special envoy of the chief adviser, observed that dynamics in the foreign exchange market and its interplay with the reserves and remittances are already showing signs of improvement.
鈥楾here is a noticeable uplift in confidence and credibility on that front,鈥� Siddiqi said.
Senior secretary and head of SDG affairs Lamiya Morshed, senior adviser of ADB Edimon Ginting, country director designate Hoe Yun Jeong, and deputy country director Jiangbo Ning were present in the meeting.
