DHAKA
DHAKA /
Expressing willingness to work with Bangladesh on the Rohingya crisis, the World Bank (WB) assured that the development partner is ready to provide US$40 crore if Bangladesh government takes any programme for Rohingyas.
“The World Bank has been monitoring the situation very closely as Rohingyas fled their home country because of violence and conflict. We are maintaining contact with our UN colleagues and other development partners for humanitarian assistance for them,” said WB’s country director Qimiao Fan while speaking at a programme here yesterday.
The WB organized the programme to release ‘Bangladesh Development Update September 2017’.
Qimiao Fan said International Development Association (IDA) of the WB has constituted a fund of US$200 crore for refugees. Any country can get maximum US$40 crore assistance from this fund if the number of refugees cross 25,000, he said, adding that Bangladesh can easily get support from this fund.
The WB chief said the Rohingya issue will come up for discussion during the WB’s annual meeting to be held in Washington next month.
About the Bangladesh economy, he said economic growth remains resilient in spite of volatile export growth and shrinking remittances.
In the update the WB forecast Bangladesh’s GDP to grow by 6.4 percent in fiscal year 2017-18.
“This growth projection is higher than any other country, except for India. This is considered as very good. The forecast for India is 7.5 percent, which they may not achieve at the end,” said WB’s lead economist Zahid Hussain. BSS