World Bank (WB) Country Director Ellen Goldstein Wednesday said the bank would not take any decision on the Padma Bridge project before getting the investigation reports on it.She said the WB is continuing dialogue on the Padma bridge project with Bangladesh.

The government has borrowed Tk 164-billion loan from banks in the first nine months of the current fiscal starting in July last year. The figure is three times higher than that in the same period of last fiscal, when it stood at Tk 40.23 billion.

NCC Bank Limited donated a Semi Automatic Biochemistry Analyzer Machine to Parshuram Diabetic Samity in Feni recently.

Southeast Bank Limited (SBL) opened its 86th branch at Mirpur in the city recently. Rehana Rahman, director of the bank, inaugurated the branch, said a press release.

Eastern Bank Limited (EBL) has declared 35 percent stock dividend for the shareholders for the year ended on 31 December 2011.

Mercantile Bank Limited declared 23 percent stock dividend for its shareholders for the year 2011.The approval was given at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the bank in the city on Wednesday.

The government has decided to increase the size of next fiscal year’s budget by 7.2 percent with no cut in the subsidy and Annual Development Programme (ADP) allocations.

Pubali Bank Limited inaugurated its 407th branch at Katirhat, Chittagong recently with online facilities.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Atiur Rahman yesterday urged local firms to borrow from abroad saying that the authority gave a nod at the beginning of the fiscal year to local firms to borrow $598 million from foreign sources.

The World Bank yesterday termed the delay in approving and implementing the donor-funded projects in Bangladesh a tragedy.Ellen Goldstein, the WB country director in Bangladesh, said: "In some instances, development partners are waiting one to two years after the signing of a financing agreement ...