Staff Correspondent:

A financing agreement has been signed on Sunday (May 25) between the government of Bangladesh and the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank Group for an amount of $270 million loan to implement the ‘Bangladesh Sustainable Recovery, Emergency Preparedness and Response Project (B-STRONG)’.

Shahriar Kader Siddiky, secretary of the Economic Relations Division and Gayle Martin, acting country director of the World Bank, Dhaka signed the financing agreement on behalf of their respective sides, reads a press release.

The main objective of the project is recovery and reconstruction of the flood affected roads and dams during the flood of August 2024 and rehabilitation of farmers. The project also would ensure resilience building, reducing future flood risks, supporting agriculture and economic development.

According to the press release, the project has five components. The project will be implemented by the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) under Ministry of Water Resources; Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) under Ministry of Agriculture; Department of Disaster Management (DDM) under Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) under Local Government Division and Social Development Foundation (SDF) under Financial Institutions Division.

The implementation period of this project is from July 2025 to December 2030.

The loan is repayable in 30 years with a grace period of five years. The service charge is 0.75% and the interest charge is 1.25% per annum on the loan withdrawal balance. Commitment fee is up to 0.50%. But the World Bank has been waiving commitment fees for a long time.