A top regional official of IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, met the Bangladesh Banka governor saying the institution will ramp up its operations in the country to boost job creation and economic competitiveness, reports UNB. Serge Devieux, IFC regional director for South Asia, met central bank governor Dr Atiur Rahman this week to reaffirm IFC’s commitment towards building a momentum for rapid, inclusive, and sustained growth in the country, said a press release.
“We’re working towards expanding job-creation opportunities, building critical infrastructure, including power, energy, and transport, and supporting better working conditions in the readymade garment sector to improve Bangladesh’s competitiveness,” Devieux said.  IFC’s work in Bangladesh supports the World Bank Group’s goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. In the last two years, IFC invested over a $1 billion in the country.
In the current fiscal year, IFC has committed nearly $400 million for 12 projects till date. 
These include supporting natural-gas resources development, funding an independent power project to ensure the supply of electricity is reliable and affordable, and expanding trade finance and efficient working capital solutions 
for domestic private industry, the release said. Bangladesh, which accounts for 5 per cent of the world’s poor, is one of IFC’s largest country-specific advisory programs. IFC is completing its South Asia Enterprise Development Facility program, which was launched in 2002 in partnership with the U.K. government and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.
The programme has helped increase the incomes of farmers-and boosted the revenues of micro, small, and medium enterprises-by more than $160 million. It has also generated estimated savings of $14 million for private businesses, and it has helped avoid about 84,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
IFC has a growing pipeline of investment projects in sustainable energy, power generation and distribution, economic zones, sea ports, inland transport, and the financial sector, the release added.