World Bank approves $250m to create quality jobs in Bangladesh
PBC News: The World Bank has approved US$250 million to help Bangladesh for creating more, better and inclusive jobs and effectively respond to the COVID-19 pandemic for a faster recovery and stronger resilience in future crises.
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The Third Programmatic Jobs Development Policy Credit– the last in a series of three credits– is supporting the government of Bangladesh to develop a stronger policy and institutional framework to modernize the trade and investment regime.
The credit also helps to improve social protection for workers, and help youth, women and vulnerable population access quality jobs, said a World Bank press release in Dhaka on Saturday.
“Job creation remains central to Bangladesh’s development objectives. While Bangladesh has had strong economic growth in recent years, the pace of job creation has slowed, especially in the manufacturing sector. The COVID-19 pandemic increased the challenges, and the poor and women were hardest hit,” said Mercy Tembon, World Bank country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan.
“This financing will help Bangladesh to create more and better jobs and expand support for both formal and informal workers affected by COVID-19 crisis,” she added.
The financing will support the government in its efforts to protect the earnings of workers affected by the COVID-19 crisis and enable firms to continue paying their workers’ wages.
It will also support informal micro-entrepreneurs in recovering from the shock by extending micro-finance facilities. Overall, it will be supported the government programmes to protect over 5 million jobs as part of the government’s near-term response to the crisis, while laying the groundwork to accelerate recovery and build resilience.
