DHAKA, Feb 5, 2019 (BSS) – Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today hoped
that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) would continue its support to
Bangladesh in various projects and sectors in the coming days alongside
getting their support in newer areas.
“We hope that they (ADB) will continue their support to Bangladesh in
various sectors side by side we are also hopeful of getting support in newer
areas,” he said newsmen after holding a meeting with the Country Director of
the ADB Manmohan Parkash at his ERD office here this afternoon.
Mentioning that the partnership of Bangladesh with ADB is very warm, Kamal
said, “We hope our partnership will be more strengthened in the days to come.
The ADB is one of our largest development partners and they are helping us in
various capacities in different projects and every project is going well.”
Manmohan Parkash said the portfolio of ADB in Bangladesh is working very
well and the Manila-based lending agency had a record approval last year.
“We also had a record commitment last year and we will be working very
closely to give very high commitments and disbursements because for us higher
disbursements help the projects get completed and thus results going to the
people,” he added.
Manmohan said they also discussed about the macroeconomic side of
Bangladesh as the country is doing very well in this regard. “We will work
very closely on a range of new initiatives to make sure that Bangladesh is
able to achieve its desired development goals,” he added.
The ADB Country Director also said, “We believe we will have a very good
partnership in the months and years to come,” Replying to a question, he said
that they would be working very closely with the government to make sure that
the ADB funded projects are implemented faster, better and stronger.
He also thinks that the appointment of AHM Mustafa Kamal as the new
Finance Minister would really help to implement the projects faster.
Currently, the ADB has 95 numbers of loan and grant for 54 projects with
over US$10 billion under sovereign portfolio in Bangladesh. In 2018, the ADB
approved loans and grants equivalent to US$2.3 billion, with contract awards
crossing US$1.3 billion and disbursement US$1.1 billion.
Earlier, a delegation of Bangladesh Insurance Association (BIA), led by
its President Sheikh Kabir Hossain, made a courtesy call on the Finance
Minister at his ERD office.