The World Bank will provide 103 crore dollars to Bangladesh and Nepal to facilitate regional communication and trade. Of this, Bangladesh will get about 75 crore dollars. Nepal will get the rest of the money. As such, at the current market rate (Tk 93.50 per US dollar), Bangladesh will get a little more than Tk 7 thousand crores.
The loan was approved at the World Bank’s board meeting on Wednesday (29 June). The funding is being provided under The Accelerating Transport and Trade Connectivity in Eastern South Asia Program (Phase I). Most of the money will be spent on automation to reduce the cost of trade and transportation and reduce transit time. In addition, about 100 km of roads in Bangladesh and Nepal will be upgraded to four lanes.
Under the project, 43 km of Sylhet-Charkai-Sheola road will be upgraded to four lanes, a World Bank press release said. Freight trucks can easily go on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway through this road. This will save 30% of the time. Besides, digital systems of Benapole, Bhomra, and Burimari land ports will be created. Chittagong port will be modernised.
In this regard, Hartwig Schafer, the World Bank’s Vice President for South Asia, said that South Asia has huge potential for regional trade. At present, the countries in the region trade only 5% of their total trade among themselves. But in East Asian countries this rate is 50%. He said that if the trade and commerce of the countries in the region are increased, the economic growth will increase and so will the employment of millions of people.
Mercy Tembon, Country Director of the World Bank Bangladesh, said that trade between Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and India has increased sixfold from 2015 to 2019. On the other hand, there is an opportunity for Bangladesh to increase regional trade by 93%.
