ADB to provide $50M for tackling COVID-19
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the government of Bangladesh today signed agreements for $50 million in additional loan to help restore the economic activities of microenterprises in Bangladesh, which have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The additional loan will scale up the ongoing Microenterprise Development Project (MDP), which ADB approved in 2018 to provide a $50 million credit line to Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), a government development finance and capacity building organization.
Fatima Yasmin, Secretary of the Economic Relations Division (ERD), and ManmohanParkash, Country Director, ADB, remotely signed the loan agreement on behalf of Bangladesh and ADB, respectively.
Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah, Managing Director of the PKSF, implementing agency of the MDP, signed the project agreement, said an ADB press release.
“The assistance will expedite Bangladesh’s progress in socio-economic recovery from the losses induced by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Parkash.
He said the assistance would inject liquidity into the rural economy and help retain businesses and jobs for microenterprises with at least 90,000 jobs protected or created, of which 70 percent are for women.
Applauding PKSF’s exemplary work in promoting the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the country, Parkash said ADB would help further institutional strengthening of the PKSF.
