The World Bank’s new Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for Bangladesh for FY 2011-14 is aimed to reduce poverty from 40 to 15 per cent and help transform Bangladesh into a middle-income country by 2021. “The CAS supports the country’s ambitious aspirations to reduce the poverty rate from 40 to 15 per cent and achieve middle- income status by 2021,” read the CAS, released here recently. The CAS builds on Bangladesh’s surprisingly strong track record on growth and human development over the past decade, it said. A WB spokesman told the agency today that the CAS has four pillars in which infrastructures, power and gas, climate change, water management, human resources development, education and healthcare facilities have been given priority. The WB financing for Padma Multi Purpose Bridge, the largest ever project of the government, which is likely to be approved by the board of the bank on Jan 25, is in the pillars, said the WB source. The WB will provide US$ 1.2 billion for the Padma Multipurpose Bridge. The WB would also provide additional financing of 300 million US dollars if the construction cost is scaled up. The country has grown by nearly six per cent per annum, significantly reducing poverty while staying on track to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to infant and child mortality, gender equality and school enrolments. The CAS proposes record levels of technical and financial support, including IDA lending of more than $ 6 billion in the coming four years based on continued strong country performance. “The new country assistance strategy proposes a doubling of financial support for Bangladesh relative to the FY06-09 strategy,” Ellen Gold-stein, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh, said earlier. She added, “To deliver this higher volume of support more effectively, we will work with government to shift to larger, more strategic interventions that enhance selectivity and leverage priority reforms and investments. We will seek to scale up projects and programs that have demonstrated results and a high degree of country ownership.” For more sustainable growth, Bank strategy will include for the first time a priority to reduce vulnerability to the effects of climate change by increasing investments in water resources management, agricultural adaptation, environmental protection and disaster preparedness.

News: The Independent/ Bangladesh/24- Feb-2011