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World Bank to consider funding if institutional governance improves |
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January 25, 2001
Dhaka-- (UNB)- The World Bank has tagged its future funding in major physical infrastructure projects with better institutional governance, a tough condition for the government to meet in the short term. Bank’s country director Frederick Temple told the monthly luncheon meeting of Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce (FICCI) yesterday (Wednesday) that the WB would consider funding infrastructures only after institutional governance improves. His indication came days after the multilateral donor agency recently suspended its committed finance halfway WASA’s water-treatment project in capital’s Sayedabad area. Temple identified “corruption, poor capacity and lack of good governance” as factors that slowed down the implementation of WB-funded projects. Institutional achievement rate is also very poor, he said. He however cited Bangladesh’s achievement in food production and social sectors, including health and school enrollment. But he noted Bangladesh’s growth is based on agriculture, which will not help address unemployment until industrial base is widened through private sector development. Temple made a detailed presentation on the bank’s programmes for private sector development and said such supports would continue. FICCI president Wali Bhuiyan said time had come for the World Bank to assess the achievement of its poverty-alleviation campaigns. He also argued Bangladesh should get debt relief as many of the projects, funded and prescribed by the World Bank, later proved ill conceived, enlarging the debt overhang on the country. Temple summarily disapproved of the argument attaching the unsatisfactory implementation of projects to institutional inefficiency. “Bangladesh does not belong to heavily indebted poor countries which are entitled to debt relief,” the donor representative said. |