Bangladesh has recorded highest disbursement of World Bank loan in the last fiscal, the global lender says.
After a joint portfolio review with the government, it says its fund disbursement to Bangladesh for Annual Development Programme has been witnessing an “upward trend” in the last four years.
But $944 million loan disbursed in 2013-2014 fiscal is a record.
It is not clear why the disbursement rate has gone up.
But the higher disbursement rate recorded even though the last government had been in tussle with the World Bank over its allegation of corruption in Padma Bridge project.
The government withdrew the funding request in Feb last year.
The government and the WB jointly review selected operations in Bangladesh every six months.
The bank says it helps to increase the pace of project implementation and accelerate disbursements.
World Bank Dhaka office’s Operations Advisor Christine Kimes said the review was “an excellent opportunity to highlight key issues and agree on critical actions to enhance performance and achieve results”.
Since independence, the World Bank has committed more than $18.6 billion, which it says accounts for 29 percent of the country’s total foreign aid received so far.
The review found the last four years’ increasing trend continued even this fiscal.
In the first two months –July and August — of this fiscal it has disbursed $ 84.5 million which is higher compared to those months in the previous year.
Source: Bd news24
