WB pleased to see own-funded Padma Bridge construction [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

WB pleased to see own-funded Padma Bridge construction

Local December 16, 2015

World Bank senior vice-president and chief economist Kaushik Basu on Tuesday said it was pleasing to the WB that Bangladesh had started the construction of Padma Multipurpose Bridge by using its own fund which would improve the mutual relation between the two parties.
Merely 10 years ago, it seemed to be imaginary for Bangladesh that it would construct the Padma Bridge by using its own fund, but the country is now doing the construction without depending on the WB’s fund, he said at a meet the press event at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital Dhaka.
Bangladesh Bank organised the event presided over by its governor Atiur Rahman.
Kaushik said that it was not an amicable history between Bangladesh and the WB about the Padma Bridge issue.
The relation between Bangladesh and the WB will get better due to the government’s initiative to construct the bridge by using its own fund, he said.
When asked whether the country would be able to manage the construction cost of the bridge amounting to $4 billion, Kaushik said the government should impose toll on use of the bridge after the construction to manage the construction cost.
He, however, assured that the WB would extend its support to implement the country’s large projects in the coming days.
The country is now facing two major challenges — inadequate infrastructure and bureaucratic complexity — to speed up its business development, Kaushik pointed out.
The government should take initiative to resolve the infrastructural crisis to ensure the easy business process, he said.
Long-term financing is highly important to resolve the infrastructural crisis and the central bank should play important role in helping the government in this regard, the WB chief economist said.
‘The country’s existing bureaucratic complexity is also hampering the easy business process. The government should take initiative to smooth the bureaucratic processes, he said.
Kaushik said the country’s labour condition had improved in the recent period, but the authorities should take measures to make more progress.
It is highly positive that the country’s industrial workers are now getting their wage and bonus through the mobile financial services, he said.
The country’s people should be more ambitious to improve its economic development as Bangladesh is going to take off to a new height, Kaushik said.
He said that the inflow of foreign direct investment and investment-GDP ratio should be increased more to achieve 8 per cent growth.
The GDP growth can also be picked up by speeding up the domestic investment, Kaushik pointed out.
The FDI-GDP ratio should be increased to between 3 per cent and 4 per cent from the existing 1 per cent, he said.
Kaushik also laid importance on the tax collection saying that the country was lagging behind in collecting taxes from the people.
‘The government should take initiative to decrease the illegal capital flight. It is highly critical to stop the capital flight. The indicator of illegal capital flight among the South Asian countries is higher than that of other countries’, he said.
The WB chief economist said that the existing financial stability of the country was now good, but the government should be cautious more about the matter.
Atiur said that the WB chief economist had observed the situation of the country’s financial inclusion during his stay in Dhaka.
‘I hope that Mr Kaushik will accept our example of the inclusion model and other countries will follow it’, he said.
Among others, the WB chief economist for the South Asia region Martin Rama and the BB chief economist Biru Paksha Paul also spoke at the programme.