DHAKA, April 14 (Xinhua) -- The Bangladeshi government has signed three financing agreements totaling 1.04 billion U.S. dollars with the World Bank (WB) to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and build resilience to future crises, including vaccination against COVID-19, expanding electronic procurement and accelerating economic recovery.
The agreements were signed by Fatima Yasmin, secretary of Bangladesh's Economic Relations Division, and Mercy Tembon, World Bank country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, on behalf of the government and the World Bank, respectively, said the bank in a statement received here Wednesday.
The 500 million U.S. dollars additional financing to the COVID-19 Emergency Response and Pandemic Preparedness Project will help Bangladesh vaccinate about 54 million people against COVID-19.
"The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be an enormous challenge around the world. So far, Bangladesh has tackled the challenges well through fiscal stimulus and social protection programs. However, economic recovery would depend on vaccination for those who need it most, and actions to increase efficiency and boost productivity," said Tembon.
"These projects will help vaccinate about one-third of the population, attract direct private investment in specialized economic zones and expand as well as upgrade the electronic government procurement system."
The 500 million U.S. dollars Private Investment and Digital Entrepreneurship (PRIDE) Project will promote and attract about 2-billion-U.S.-dollar direct private investments and strengthen social and environmental standards in selected public and private economic zones and software technology parks.
"These financings will help Bangladesh provide vaccination to mass people and thus help the economy turn around and remain resilient," said Yasmin.
The 40 million U.S. dollars Additional Financing to the Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPP) will help Bangladesh expand electronic government procurement (e-GP) to all public procurement entities with new features to respond to the COVID-19 challenges. Enditem