World Bank President Kim announces $2 billion for Bangladesh to tackle climate change

The World Bank president has announced a major investment to help Bangladesh adapt to climate change.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 18 Oct 2016, 11:48 AM
Updated : 18 Oct 2016, 02:47 PM

Jim Yong Kim, at a press briefing on Tuesday, said the bank would invest $2 billion in the next three years for climate change projects.

This is his second investment announcement to Bangladesh during the two-day visit.

A South Korean-American physician and anthropologist, Kim is the 12th president of the World Bank, and the first without a formal background in finance or banking.

He came to Dhaka on Sunday to see firsthand Bangladesh’s success stories in ending poverty.

This visit is also seen by many including officials of the Bank as smoothing out strained relations with Bangladesh over Padma Bridge financing.

He met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Finance Minister AMA Muhith and spoke at the joint World Poverty Eradication day observance with the Bangladesh government. He also visited southern Barisal district to see World Bank funded projects.

On Monday, he lauded Bangladesh’s “extraordinary accomplishment” in reducing poverty, and said this “impressive” record of economic growth and investments in people occurred despite many challenges.

Bangladesh, for instance, is exceptionally vulnerable to severe cyclones, accounting for 70 percent of all storm surges in the world, he said.

“But with active community participation, Bangladesh has adapted to climate threats, putting in place early warning systems, cyclone shelters, evacuation plans, coastal embankments, and reforestation schemes”.

In the press briefing, he said Bangladesh is among the countries most at risk from the impacts of climate change.

But, it has been a “forerunner” in adaptation and stronger disaster-coping mechanisms and these have reduced the impact of recent storms, cyclones, and floods.

“And the World Bank Group plans to help Bangladesh become even more resilient to climate change," Kim said.

“I’m most impressed by the resilience of the people of Bangladesh at a time when climate change puts their lives and livelihoods at risk.

"Their determination to provide their children with better opportunities underpins Bangladesh’s powerful development story and the country can do even better if it addresses its challenges in climate change, infrastructure, human development, governance, and attracting private sector investments,” he said.

The new funding aims to make Bangladesh become less vulnerable to climate change.

The global lender says the $2 billion pledge in new money for climate change is in addition to $1 billion pledged by Kim on Monday to end childhood stunting in Bangladesh.

Both amounts are contingent on a successful replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries, which should be agreed in December.

Since Bangladesh’s independence, the World Bank Group has been the country’s largest development partner in terms of volume of financing and provided more than $24 billion.

Currently, Bangladesh is the largest recipient of funds from the IDA, the World Bank Group’s fund for the poorest countries with 38 projects and a total commitment of more than $9.5 billion.

Its private sector arm, IFC, has a committed portfolio of $1 billion and MIGA has $305 million in gross exposure in Bangladesh.

The World Bank president believes that Bangladesh can reach its goals to become a middle-income country by 2021 and to end extreme poverty by 2030.

But for that, he said, the country must sustain its economic growth, create more and better jobs, focus on energy and transport infrastructure, make progress on improving the quality of health and education, and improving governance, including strengthening anti-corruption measures.

He will leave Dhaka on Tuesday.