ReliefWeb

DHAKA, Oct 20, 2008 (Xinhua via COMTEX News Network) -- The World Bank has committed the highest-ever assistance of 1.34 billion U.S. dollars to Bangladesh for the current fiscal year, private news agency UNB reported Monday.

This was disclosed by Finance Adviser of the Bangladesh caretaker government Mirza Azizul Islam who attended the IMF, World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington D.C. during Oct. 11-13 and returned on Monday.

He said, of the total assistance, 959 million U.S. dollars is for the July-December period of current 2008-09 fiscal year (July 2008-June 2009) and the rest 381 million U.S. dollars for the January-June period.

"This is the largest ever World Bank commitment. This is due to their satisfaction over Bangladesh for various reform measures," said the adviser.

Among the July-December assistance projects, a power plant of 355 million U.S. dollars is scheduled to go to the World Bank Board for approval on Oct. 30.

Meanwhile, emergency cyclone response project of 109 million U. S. dollars and Dhaka Water Supply and Sanitation project of 150 million U.S. dollars will get approval during November-December this year.

The food crisis response project of 130 million U.S. dollars would also be released by this month as budget support while three other small projects of 215 million U.S. dollars have already been approved.