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International Development Association to provide US$151m |
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January 31, 2001
Dhaka-- (UNB) International Development Association will provide Bangladesh with 151 million US dollars equivalent to about Tk 857 crore in credits under an agreement signed here yesterday. The IDA credits will be utilized for the Poverty Alleviation Microfinance-II Project to be implemented by the Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) on behalf of the government. An official announcement said the project would be implemented during the period of March 2001 to June 2005. The loan is repayable in 40 years, including 10 years moratorium, at a rate of 0.75 percent service charge per annum. Dr Masihur Rahman, Secretary, Economic Relations Division, and Dr Frederick T Temple, Country Director of the World Bank, signed the agreement on behalf of the government and the IDA, the soft-loan window of the WB. Finance Minister Shah AMS Kibria and Managing Director of the World Bank Shengman Zhang were present in the agreement- signing ceremony. The Poverty Alleviation Microfinance-II Project will expand rural micro-credits, responding to unmet demand and the need for longer loans per borrower. Under the project, the poorest of the population (Hard Core group) will get smaller loan with flexible repayment plans linking micro-credits to safety-net programmes, such as skill training. The project will also provide micro-enterprise loans to entrepreneurs to help them scale up their activities and in turn create employment for the poorest people, said the release. It also aims to expand micro-lending in urban areas where current micro-credits are limited to less than 15 percent of the urban poor compared to over 60 percent of rural people. The project will provide funds for institutional capacity building of PKSF and its partner organizations. |