Business news - Govt to start talks with WB soon on budget support

The government will begin negotiations with the World Bank soon to receive budgetary support, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said yesterday.

“I have informed the WB about the policy reforms we will undertake,” he told reporters after a meeting with Annette Dixon, vice president of the World Bank for its South Asia region, at the secretariat.

The finance ministry has already sent a set of policy reforms to the Washington-based multilateral lender.

It covers nine areas such as public fund management, banking, energy, transport, ICT, public private partnership and migrant workers. Reforms in these areas will be implemented in three fiscal years, starting from 2015-16. 

“The timing for the implementation of each of the reforms will be finalised during negotiations,” Muhith said.

The minister said his government hopes to receive $500 million or more from the WB as budgetary support.

The finance minister said Bangladesh received $2.7 billion from the WB in development assistance in the last fiscal year. In the current fiscal year, it hopes to get $2 billion. Muhith said the country would get rid of poverty by 2018 as the rate of poverty would come down to below 14 percent by the time.

In response to queries, Muhith said the current political issue was not discussed in the meeting. “She did not raise the issue. I did not raise it. We talked on the basis of the country's achievements in various sectors in 2014.”

The minister said he believes the current political situation would not last long.

Annette Dixon declined to comment on the political crisis. She said: “The focus of my visit was the economic development of the country and its efforts and achievements in poverty reduction.”

Dixon said the economy has been doing well, growing at an average of 6 percent a year for over a decade. “The rate of poverty is also coming down.”

A finance ministry official said the WB is currently reviewing the government's reform proposals. It will be finalised once the anti-poverty lender gives its opinions.

If the WB is happy with the set of proposals, it will be forwarded to the bank's headquarters for approval, the official said. Dixon also sat in a meeting with Atiur Rahman, Bangladesh Bank governor, at his office, where he highlighted the country's success in the areas of microcredit and an inclusive and environment-friendly economy.