Bangladesh's development recipe is receiving a fillip as the emerging-financier Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is set to prepare a sector-specific financing plan for the country, sources say.
Styled 'Multi-Year Rolling Pipeline (MYRP)', the financing package is focused on funding key sectors like infrastructure, connectivity, energy transition, climate resilience, urban services, and private capital mobilisation.
The Beijing-headquartered bank is outlining the funding plan for the period of 2027-2030 "keeping in mind Bangladesh's national development priorities", officials have said.
An AIIB delegation, led by its Director-General Rajat Misra, will visit Dhaka in the last week of this month with an extensive agenda to discuss the programme plans with the ministries and divisions concerned.
The team will also have a meeting with Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury to discuss AIIB's ongoing and prospective supports in the years ahead.
According to officials concerned, the bank has so far approved 27 projects in Bangladesh worth nearly US$5.284 billion in core sectors, including energy, transport, urban development, and water, besides other critical infrastructures.
The AIIB, this June, approved and disbursed $600 million to Bangladesh in response to the government's request for emergency support for LNG import to meet the needs at the time of heightened external pressures and energy-market volatility.
Sources say during the visit, the AIIB team will have meetings with officials from the ministries of finance, environment, planning, power, energy, and mineral resources, local government, water resources, agriculture, disaster management and relief, road transport and highways division, and the central bank.
At the meetings with the finance division, the officials will have discussion on AIIB's climate-focused policy-based financing (CPBF) instrument in Bangladesh, implementation status of the National Adaptation Plan 2023-2050, and budgetary allocations for addressing environmental and social implications of policies, plans and programmes.
Officials of the ministry of environment, forest, and climate change will discuss role of the climate-partnership platform, and implementation of the updated locally led adaptation framework.
To be discussed at the planning commission are issues like incorporation of the National Adaptation Plan and the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC-U) priorities in all ministries' Annual Development Programmes, consolidation of all Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund projects under ADP system, and introduction of climate budgeting of all ADP projects.
The implementation status of the Integrated Energy and Power Master Plan (IEPMP) and Solar Irrigation Roadmap, and Renewable Energy Policy will be discussed with the Power Division.
In Bangladesh Bank, the meetings will focus on the effectiveness of the Green Transformation Fund Refinancing Scheme, effectiveness of the Policy on Green Bond Financing for Banks and Financial Institutions, and the effectiveness of Guidelines on Sustainability and Climate-Related Financial Disclosure for Banks and Financial Companies.
At the meetings at Road Transport and Highways Division, the AIIB officials will discuss the procurement of electric buses for public transport, status of the Revised Strategic Transport Masterplan for Dhaka, 2025-2034, implementation of the New Operational Strategy for Railways, and implementation of New Energy Use Standards for locomotive, among others.
A senior Finance Division official told The Financial Express Thursday the AIIB gives importance on green transformation and climate-change issues keeping in mind the changed global and environmental perspectives.
"In the new multi-year funding pipeline, projects and programmes linked with sustainability and environmental issues will get priorities," he said.
syful-islam@outlook.com
