The World Bank on Thursday approved a US$250 million financing to help the Government of Bangladesh for strengthening policies to sustain growth following the COVID-19 pandemic and enhance resilience to future shocks.
The Bangladesh First Recovery and Resilience Development Policy Credit– first in a series of two credits– supports fiscal and financial sector policies to enhance macroeconomic stability and sustain growth.
It supports expanding and modernizing social protection programmes and energy sector policies to improve efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These actions will help the country to build resilience against future shocks, including climate change.
“Since 2020, the World Bank has provided over US$3 billion to Bangladesh to support emergency response, vaccination and other Covid-19 recovery efforts,” said Mercy Tembon, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan.
“This credit will further accelerate the government’s endeavors to strengthen its policies and regulatory framework to pave the way for a green, resilient, inclusive recovery and low-carbon growth,” she added.
The programme supports the development of the National Tariff Policy which will help modernize trade taxes, said a press release.
New policies also enable foreign firms, including non-resident digital services companies, such as the search, social media, and cloud services firms, to submit VAT returns and make payments. Expanded coverage of the national e-Government Procurement (e-GP) system will increase the efficiency of public expenditure.
