DHAKA, June 21, 2020 (BSS) – The government today signed a loan agreement of US$ 250 million (budget support) with the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank Group to finance the “Second Jobs Development Policy Credit (DPC-2)” program.
Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary Fatima Yasmin and Mercy Tembon, country director of the World Bank, signed the loan agreement on behalf of their respective sides, said an ERD press release.
The credit amount, to be repaid in 30 years (with 5 years grace period), will have an interest rate of 1.25 percent along with 0.75 percent service charge on the outstanding amount.
The release said the government in recent years has laid emphasis on reform and modernization of some policy strategies and regulations with the involvement of various ministries, divisions and agencies of the government to support extended job creation, improved job quality, and inclusive access to jobs for all the Bangladeshi nationals.
In this context, the government and the World Bank Group (WBG) have got engaged in a three-year program of reforms for the period 2018-2021, and the World Bank Group (WBG) agreed to extend financial assistance of $750 million in this regard.
The first program in the series (Job DPC-1) was completed in FY 2018-19 where IDA provided $250 million and in its continuity, has agreed to provide another $250 million in the second program (Job DPC-2) in the current FY 2019-20.
Under Job DPC Program, the government agreed to revise and update some existing legislations and rules, reengineering business processes which eventually contribute to improvement of Doing Business Index of Bangladesh.
Improvement of Doing Business Ranking will facilitate attracting new investment and thus create employment opportunities.
This DPC tranche-2 was due to be released in FY 2020-2021. In order to address the adverse impacts of COVID-19, the World Bank (IDA) agreed to frontload this disbursement in FY 2019-2020 on request of the government of Bangladesh.
This fund will be utilized for emergency health related services and for implementing stimulus packages announced by the Prime Minister.