Bangladesh
Bangladesh Padma Setu Padma Setu is a pride of Bangladesh: World Bank
Dhaka, June 26, 2022: Junaid Kamal Ahmed, Vice-President of the World Bank, has termed the construction of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge as a 'matter of pride' for Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh Embassy in Washington DC quoted him as saying, "The construction of the Padma Bridge is a matter of pride for the country (Bangladesh)."
He attended a discussion meeting as a special guest at the Bangabandhu Auditorium of the Bangladesh Embassy in Washington DC, USA, before the grand inauguration of the Padma Bridge in Bangladesh. He said the country's communications sector has witnessed tremendous development in the last few years and the Padma Bridge has made the sector stronger.
Ahmed hoped that the Padma Bridge would play an important role in making Bangladesh a middle-income country as well as a high-income country. Under the agreement with the Bangladesh government, the World Bank's loan amount was to be increased to ২ 1.2 billion. But the lending agency abruptly refused to release the promised funds, saying the World Bank had found "credible evidence" of planned corruption involved in the construction work.
However, a federal court in Canada and the Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission in a separate investigation later found no basis for the allegations. At that time Bangladesh canceled any kind of foreign financial assistance in this project and promised to take the project forward with its own funds.
However, the senior official of the World Bank, while deepening the relationship between the World Bank and Bangladesh, said that the World Bank has continued its assistance to Bangladesh in various sectors including local government and energy. He is the Vice President (Operations) of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), one of the five companies under the World Bank Group.
Meanwhile, the World Bank's Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, Mercy Myang Tembon, said the global lending agency was happy with the inauguration of the Padma Bridge. "We are happy that the bridge has been completed," he told reporters at the inauguration of the Padma Bridge at the end of Mawa. We are happy that Bangladesh is going to benefit from this bridge. '
Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen had earlier said that the World Bank must apologize and be "sorry" because it had done "great injustice" to Bangladesh by canceling funding for the construction of the Padma Bridge.
