DHAKA, May 13, 2020 (BSS) – The government and the Asian Development Bank
(ADB) today signed a $100 million loan agreement to support the government’s
efforts to address the immediate public health requirements for mitigating
the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary Fatima Yasmin and ADB Country
Director Manmohan Parkash, signed the loan agreement remotely, on behalf of
Bangladesh and ADB respectively. ADB’s Board of Directors approved the
assistance on April 30, 2020, said an ADB press release.
“As a trusted development partner, we are pleased to offer $100 million to
bolster the Government’s efforts in managing this catastrophic pandemic,
which challenges Bangladesh’s recent successes in socioeconomic development,”
said Country Director Manmohan Parkash.
“Bangladesh has taken decisive actions to manage the COVID-19 outbreak and
this assistance will support the Government’s efforts in mitigating the
health sector challenges in short and medium terms. I am confident the
challenges will be met successfully through pragmatic policy decisions, and
health sector capacity building and reforms,” Parkash added.
The assistance under the COVID-19 Response Emergency Assistance Project
will help strengthen Bangladesh’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak by
providing urgently needed health equipment, medical supplies, diagnostic
systems, and upgrading of the capacity of the health workforce.
This project will support the immediate procurement of equipment and
supplies for testing; upgrade of medical infrastructure; and the development
of system and community capacities for surveillance, prevention, and response
to the pandemic in Bangladesh.
The project will equip 17 medical college hospitals with isolation and
critical care units. Capacity and quality of at least 19 laboratories will be
upgraded with COVID-19 microbiological diagnostic facilities.
The release said at least 3,500 health sector workers, about 50 percent of
whom are women, will be trained in modern skills and knowledge, and the
recruitment of more health professionals and technical staff will be
supported.
The concessional assistance for the project will be sourced from ADB’s
ordinary capital resources with an interest charge at the rate of 1.0 percent
per annum; a term of 40 years, including a grace period of 10 years;
repayment of principal at 2 percent per annum for the first 10 years after
the grace period, and 4 percent per annum thereafter.
ADB has a strong track record of responding rapidly to provide targeted
support to Bangladesh in times of emergencies. On May 7, ADB approved $500
million to strengthen Bangladesh’s efforts to mitigate the socio-economic
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As an immediate response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ADB had released a
$350,000 emergency grant for the procurement of medical supplies and
equipment, and $1.3 million from an existing project to provide one-time cash
support to 22,619 trainees to enable them to continue their ongoing skills
training program.
On 13 April, ADB tripled the size of its initial response to COVID-19 to
$20 billion and approved measures to streamline its operations for quicker
and more flexible delivery of assistance to help its developing member
countries counter the severe macroeconomic and health impacts caused by the
pandemic.