Finance and Commerce Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed on Tuesday
said Bangladesh expects budget support from the World Bank (WB) within this
year.
"We're expecting budget support from the World Bank
within this year and this will be finalized and then you will know," he
said.
The adviser said this while talking to the newsmen after a
WB delegation led by its Regional Director Mathew A Verghis met him at the
Finance Division in Bangladesh Secretariat.
He said the WB team has been requested to immediately
provide the budget support to carry out the necessary reforms here.
"Since World Bank is our largest multilateral
development partner, we need special support in the forms of financial
assistance and technical assistance from them," he added.
The finance adviser said, "They (WB) have agreed and
also positive as well as open minded. They have also been assured and more
detailed discussions will be held mainly on how to carry out the reforms,"
When asked whether the government has sought $2 billion
afresh from the World Bank, he said he did not reveal the amount adding that
the issue would be finalized later on.
Dr Salehuddin said each and every assistance comes up with a
set of implementable conditions and actions. "The reforms will have to be
implementable; otherwise, we won't be able to accomplish those while the donors
also won't lend us the support," he added.
He also said the government has requested the WB so that the
reform initiatives become implementable.
Finance ministry officials said that World Bank is likely to
provide a $1 billion loan to Bangladesh and the global lender has set four
conditions to the Bangladesh Bank.
The amount must be used specifically for reforming the
country's banking and financial sectors and strengthening the central bank. In
this regard, the World Bank officials held a meeting recently with Bangladesh
Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur.
Sources said $750 million of the loan must be allocated for
policy reforms. The central bank expects to receive this assistance in
December.
The conditions for securing this loan are: establishing a
framework for asset management companies to recover non-performing loans from
banks and financial institutions; formulating policies to determine the actual
beneficiaries of loans; defining the scope of forensic audits for banks and
financial institutions; and creating a separate department within Bangladesh
Bank for regulatory enforcement.