The Finance Ministry has approved establishment of a specialised bank to facilitate participants of the ‘one house one farm’ project .
Last month, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had spoken of setting up of village savings banks to strengthen the rural economy.
After a meeting on Thursday, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said: “Today we have decided to set up the ‘Pollishonchoi Bank’ (village savings bank).”
He said a guideline would be drawn up for the proposed bank and sent to the Law Ministry for vetting.
The proposal would be tabled in Parliament after it is cleared by the Cabinet.
“The proposal might be tabled on Nov 18 when the current Parliament session resumes,” said Muhith.
During its 1996-01 term, the Awami League government had started the ‘One House, One Farm’ project, but it was shelved by the BNP-Jamaat coalition government that came to power in 2001.
The Awami league revived it after coming back to power in 2009.
A Tk 13.32 billion fund was created for more than 1 million families from 17,300 villages across Bangladesh.
The bank is being established so that the project’s participants can continue their economic activities even after the project has formally come to an end.
These families will be able to deposit their savings in this bank and will also be able to take loans.
Source: Bd news24
