Bangladesh
Vaccine Production ADB wants quick approval for vaccine production, Tk 3,718 cr loan will be available
Dhaka, Oct 12: Asian Development Bank (ADB) wants quick project approval to increase Bangladesh's vaccine production capacity. At present, the process of preparing the project proposal is underway. If the project is not approved by December 31, getting a low-interest loan will be uncertain.
Edimon Ginting, country director of the organization, said these in a meeting with Planning Minister MA Mannan on Wednesday. On this day, the meeting was held at the Minister's office in Sherebangla Nagar of the capital.
After the meeting, the Minister of Planning told reporters that vaccines for various diseases including corona and dengue will be developed. More types of viruses may come in the future. That is why preparation is needed from now. The government has taken up a scheme for that. There, ADB will lend 338 million dollars or 33 crore 80 lakh dollars, which is Tk 3,718 crore in Bangladesh currency. Of this, half will be at low interest and half at near market rates. ADB has requested that the project be approved quickly.
The minister said, there will be no reduction from my side. This is a good initiative. ADB is our good friend. Arrangements will be made as soon as possible.
He also said that the country director of ADB said that the last financial year was his best time in Bangladesh. He has had a good time in all aspects of work environment, financial concessions, project implementation and loan approval.
In response to journalists' questions, ADB's country director Edimon Ginting said that a loan of 3.5 billion dollars was approved for Bangladesh last fiscal year. Of this, USD 2 billion is in low interest and USD 1.5 billion is in some low interest market rate loans.
He also said that Bangladesh will not be able to buy cheap vaccines after 2026 in the next phase of LDC transition. Then the vaccine should be bought according to the international market price. For this reason, a capacity building project has been taken so that Bangladesh can produce vaccines in the country from now on. We want it to be approved as soon as possible.
