Bangladesh has recently approved payment of USD $318 million for payment to Russia in the Chinese currency of yuan for construction of the Rooppur nuclear power plant.  A meeting held recently between the Economic Relations Division and Russian officials decided that the payment will be made in yuan at a Chinese bank account, Uttam Kumar Karmkar, head of the European affairs of Economic Relations Division (ERD), Ministry of Finance confirmed  to UNB. He said that the decision was taken to use the Chinese currency yuan for debt repayment at a meeting of the ERD last Thursday. Read more: Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project delayed by Russia-Ukraine War: Yeafesh Osman He said that although the decision has been taken to use Chinese currency to repay the loan, the transaction has not yet been completed. Payment details need to be clarified and resolved. Citing the diplomatic sensitivity of the matter, he declined to comment further. Dhaka's decision seems to have resolved the problem of making any payment to sanctions-hit Russia in the US dollar.  Read more: Return of Russian vessel carrying consignment for Rooppur won’t delay project work: Minister Last year, Western countries excluded Russia from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, or SWIFT, one of the world's payment systems, due to its military invasion in Ukraine. The Rooppur nuclear power plant is being built in Bangladesh with a loan from Russia. But due to sanctions on Russia, it is not possible to pay in US dollars.  

In 2022, AFD and the Economic Relations Division of the government of Bangladesh signed a host country agreement (HCA) for the establishment of AFD activities in Bangladesh, a successful outcome of years of negotiations between the French and Bangladesh governments. This was a crucial step which came after 10 years of operation and over 20 projects financed in the country, said a media release on Tuesday. Agence Française de Développement (AFD) Group is a public financial institution that funds, supports and accelerates transitions towards a more just and sustainable world. Read more: Govt to honour expats through National Expatriate Day: Momen AFD has become a major development partner of Bangladesh. For the single year of 2022, €278.3 million (loans and grants) were approved, and an unprecedented amount of €183.5m was disbursed. “AFD has more than doubled the amount of its financing in the course of the last three years. This only bears witness to the trust between our two countries, France and Bangladesh. It is also thanks to the efforts of dedicated actors, AFD staff together with our colleagues of the Economic Relations Division of the Ministry of Finance of Bangladesh, that all this was possible. We look forward to continued cooperation between AFD and the ERD, our two countries, for the benefit of the citizens of Bangladesh that both our governments serve,” AFD Country Director for Bangladesh, Benoit Chassatte, said.

Mashiur Rahman, Economic Affairs Advisor to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said on Thursday that the IMF loan is like a character certificate. “If we get this certificate, everyone will show interest in giving us loans,” he told a seminar on ‘South-South and Triangular Cooperation: Tapping New Opportunities.’ The discussion was jointly organised by Economic Relations Division (ERD) and UNDP in the capital, Dhaka. Read more: Government working on IMF’s conditions to get $4.5 billion loan Mashiur said that the IMF’s lending as budget support means that the economic management of a country is sound. “If this is the case, other countries or organisations will express interest in lending easily. The investment will also come along with it,” he said. UN Resident Coordinator Gwyn Lewis and UNDP Resident Representative Stefan Liller were present as special guests while ERD Secretary Sharifa Khan presided over the function. Read more: $4.5bn IMF loan: 1st instalment expected next Feb, says Mustafa Kamal Policy Exchange of Bangladesh CEO and Chairman M. Masrur Reaz and Research and Policy Integration for Development (PRI) Chairman Dr. MA Razzaque presented the main articles on the topic. Faizul Islam, Additional Secretary of ERD and UNDP’s Country Economist Nazneen Ahmed also spoke at the event.

Bangladesh received a record $8.41 billion in foreign loans in 11 months of current FY2021-22, the Economic Relations Division said on Thursday. At current exchange rate the amount is equivalent to Tk 78221 crore, the highest loan ever in a single fiscal year. The amount is 47 per cent higher than the previous fiscal year. The ERD officials estimate that the foreign debt will exceed $9 billion by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2022. After the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, there is a lot of talk about Bangladesh's foreign debt. Also read: Default loans cross over 126 crore: Finance Minister However, economists and analysts are dismissing the comparison between the two countries. They say foreign debt is still below 13 per cent of Bangladesh's GDP. In case of Sri Lanka, it is close to 50 per cent. Economist and researcher Ahsan H. Mansur said, "The leap has been made by receiving more loans than expected from various donor countries and organizations, including the World Bank and the ADB, to offset the effects of the two-year pandemic." Analysis of ERD data shows that in the last FY2020-21, Bangladesh received $7.10 loan assistance from development partners. Before that, in the fiscal year 2019-20, Bangladesh received $7.38 billion foreign loan that was the history of the country till FY 21. Also read: FBCCI seeks loan moratorium till December Foreign debt has been increasing in Bangladesh since the fiscal year 2017-18. In the same year, it jumped to $6.37 billion. Then in the fiscal year 2018-19 it stood at Tk6.54 billion.

Senior vice president of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Keiichiro Nakazawa has said Bangladesh is now one of the largest partners among the more than 100 partner countries. “Over the past 50 years, the relationship between JICA and Bangladesh has become deeper and more extensive,” he said while celebrating the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh-JICA cooperation organized by the Economic Relations Division (ERD) and JICA in a city hotel on Thursday. In the early days of cooperation, Nakazawa said, their focus was mainly on agriculture development. “Today, we are working in almost all sectors.” Also read: JICA wants to install Incinerator plants to dispose medical waste

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) will honour 9 firms on the National VAT Day for paying highest amount  of Value Added Tax (VAT). The VAT department of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) on Wednesday released a list of awardees. Earlier the Economic Relations Division (ERD) published a gazette notification in this regard. Read:NBR to organize month-long tax support service from Nov 1 December 10 is celebrated as the National VAT Day every year. The NBR will honour the highest tax payers of the fiscal year 2019-20 on this day. Nine firms under three categories- production, business and service- will receive the awards at a ceremony in Dhaka. The list of awardees includes Aristopharma Limited, Square Toiletries Limited and Maya Bidi Factory under the production category, SM Motors, AMCO Bajaj International and Union Motors Limited under business category and IDTCO Bangladesh Co. Ltd. Gray Advertising Ltd. and Robert Boss (Bangladesh) Ltd under service category. The VAT department of the National Board of Revenue has been regularly honoring the top VAT payers for several years. Read: NBR directs big push to reach the revenue target for current fiscal Business establishments which have Electronic Business Identification Number (EBIN), issue regular VAT receipts to the consumers and regularly deposit the collected VAT money in the government treasury are considered eligible for the award. NBR will also honour 102 companies in the three categories as the top VAT payers at the district level.

The World Bank is supporting Bangladesh with $590 million grant financing to address the needs of the displaced Rohingya people until their safe and voluntary return to Myanmar, and to minimise the impact on the host communities. The Refugee Policy Review Framework aims at evaluating the effectiveness of the multilateral donor's support to refugee-hosting countries across the world to strengthen relevant policies and institutions to best manage the situation, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan Mercy Tembon said. Read: Repatriation is the only solution, not integration: FM about Rohingya crisis The World Bank came up with a programme in Bangladesh as part of the framework through the Economic Relations Division. Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar and Bhasan Char. Most of them had fled a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine in 2017.

The government has taken a very strong stance against the idea floated by the World Bank that apparently suggests the integration of Rohingyas into Bangladesh as Bangladesh’s priority remains repatriation of Rohingyas to their homeland. “We took a very strong stance. We didn’t like it and we opposed it strongly. We conveyed it,” Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told UNB. The World Bank came up with a programme as part of its Refugee Policy Review Framework globally for refugee host countries through the Economic Relations Division (ERD). “Rohingyas are not refugees here. They’re taking shelter temporarily,” Dr Momen said, adding that Bangladesh wants the repatriation of Rohingyas to their place of origin in Myanmar. Asked about the WB’s proposed programme, the Foreign Minister said the WB is saying effective steps to be taken to identify, prevent and mitigate social tensions and risk of violence among the displaced people and host communities, building good relations among themselves,  and to employ them in local works. Read: Poor host communities fume as Rohingyas start grabbing local labour market He said they (WB) are saying Rohingyas should have the right to work and free mobility; and birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates should be issued for the Rohingyas like Bangladesh citizens. “Naturally, we don’t accept those ideas. They (WB) are willing to give money for these if we do integrate them.” As per the WB ideas shared with the ERD, the Rohingyas should have access to local labour market, including business opportunities, the same way Bangladesh nationals have with the same payment facilities.

The World Bank will provide USD 300 million to the government of Bangladesh as loan to implement a five-year project on livelihood improvement scheduled to begin from July next. The government will chip in USD 40 million for the project titled, ‘Resilience, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood Improvement (RELI) Project’, raising its total cost to USD 340 million.  Read: WB approves $191mn credit for Bangladesh’s education sector The signing ceremony of the Financing Agreement between the Economic Relations Division, Ministry of Finance, and the World Bank; and the Project Agreement between the World Bank and Social Development Foundation (SDF), the implementing agency, was held on June 27 last.    Fatima Yasmin, Secretary of the Economic Relations Division of the Ministry of Finance, and Mercy Miyang Tembon, the World Bank’s Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, signed the Financing Agreement on behalf of their respective sides.  Tembon also inked the Project Agreement on behalf of the World Bank while AZM Sakhawat Hossain, Managing Director of the SDF, signed the per procurationem for the implementing agency. SDF Chairperson Md. Abdus Samad, also a former Senior Secretary, was also present at the signing ceremony, according to a SDF media release.   Built on the success of the first and second Social Investment Programme Projects and the Nuton Jibon Livelihood Improvement Project, the RELI project will mobilize, develop, and strengthen community organizations, and finance their community plans to provide cash transfers and loans for income-generating activities. Read: Manufacturing sector’s productivity crucial for Bangladesh to offset Covid impacts: WBThe project will provide training to almost 490,000 people on climate risk, adaptation, and resilience building. It will also build 5,120 climate-resilient small-scale infrastructures.“The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the poor in rural areas, particularly women, by limiting their income and economic opportunities,” said World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan Mercy Tembon.“This project will help boost the rural economy and 90 percent of the beneficiaries will be women. The project will also help with health and nutritional awareness. When a woman earns more, her family and the community are better off,” Mercy Tembon added.The project will support rural entrepreneurs and producer groups with market linkages  including e-commerce platforms, partnerships with local governments, and promotional activities, said a WB press release. Read: Helping poor in Bangladesh: WB approves $600 mn for 2 projectsIt will also provide skills development training to the unemployed or under-employed youth and returnee migrants to increase their employability.Economic Relations Division Secretary Fatima Yasmin said, “Through community mobilization and climate-smart agriculture practices, the project will help rural women withstand any future shocks like the pandemic without falling back to poverty.”

The World Bank and the government of Bangladesh on Thursday signed a $250 million financing agreement to help Bangladesh create more and better jobs, recover faster from the COVID 19 pandemic and build resilience to future crises. The agreements were signed by Economic Relations Division secretary Fatima Yasmin and World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan Mercy Tembon on behalf of the Government and the World Bank, respectively. The Third Programmatic Jobs Development Policy—the last in a series of three credits—focuses on key reforms to create quality and inclusive jobs, while supporting the government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. Also read: WB okays $250 million for Bangladesh to respond to COVID ... It supports policies to modernize the trade and investment regime; improve social protection for workers; and help youth, women, and vulnerable people access quality jobs. The credit is from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), which provides concessional financing, has a 30-year term, including a five-year grace period. “The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on the poor and vulnerable population,” said Mercy Tembon. Read Bangladesh inks over $1 b deal with World Bank for responding to COVID-19 pandemic He said that this financing supports government policies to protect those most affected by the pandemic and create more and better jobs as Bangladesh continues its journey towards its vision of becoming an upper-middle income country. The pace of job creation has slowed in recent years, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation. The Jobs Development Policy Credit series has helped the government protect 5 million jobs, and enabled firms to continue paying their workers’ wages. Also read: World Bank prediction on Bangladesh economy inconsistent ... Losses in jobs and income put livelihoods of several million at risk in both rural and urban areas. Women and youth have been particularly hard hit. It also supported the migrant workers who have had to return to Bangladesh due to the pandemic. The program will also support informal micro-entrepreneurs in recovering by extending micro-finance facilities. “The government has taken fast and proactive measures to protect the poor and vulnerable population and to mitigate the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on formal and informal businesses,” said ERD secretary Fatima Yasmin. Read WB approves $500 mn to help Bangladesh vaccinate 54 mn people The program has already resulted in reducing costs of starting a business; making the skills development sector more labor-market relevant; strengthening labor regulations for improved working conditions; and promoting quality daycare to enable more women to join the labor force, according to the press release. With this program, total World Bank financing under the Programmatic Jobs Development Policy Credit series stands at $750 million. Bangladesh currently has the largest ongoing IDA program totaling over $14 billion. Read WB approves $200 million to help Dhaka support urban poor, migrants