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Add to Preferred SourcesThe government of Bangladesh signed a $250 million development policy operation to support the country’s reform efforts to create large-scale, better-paid and inclusive jobs.
The Programmatic Jobs Development Policy Credit—the first of a series of three planned operations—will help Bangladesh build a stronger policy and institutional framework to create faster and more inclusive jobs for citizens, including women, youth, overseas migrants and the vulnerable members of the population.
“Jobs are the cornerstone for development. Bangladesh needs to create more and better jobs, particularly in the manufacturing sector to achieve its growth aspirations,” said Qimiao Fan, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. “The program will support reforms that would address key challenges in creating inclusive and quality jobs. This will help the government implement policies to modernize trade, stimulate investment, strengthen social protection systems for workers and help vulnerable people access jobs.”
The program takes a comprehensive approach to overcome the binding constraints to job creation. It aims to help leverage Bangladesh’s comparative advantage in the manufacturing sector while stimulating investment, making doing business easier, and modernizing customs and trade facilitation. To ensure workers’ protection, it will also help implement amendments to the labor law and reform the pensions program.
The credit is from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), and has a 30-year term, including a five-year grace period. It carries a service charge of 0.75 percent and an interest of 1.25 percent. The World Bank was among the first development partners to support Bangladesh following its independence. Since then the World Bank has committed more than $30 billion, mostly in grants and interest-free credits to Bangladesh. Bangladesh currently has the largest IDA program totaling $12.4 billion.
Original source: World Bank
Published on 09 January 2019