The World Bank is asking global suppliers to deliver gas to Bangladesh without any concerns because the multilateral lender sees its support to the country as a kind of payment guarantee, said its director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, Abdoulaye Seck.

“Gas will play an important role for Bangladesh. But the idea would be how can we get gas at a reasonable price. I mean the current price, for example, that the United States pays when we say import gas. What we will try to do is that the World Bank can bring a facility which is a kind of guarantee,” he said at a panel discussion titled “Bangladesh-World Bank Relations: The Way Forward” organized by the Association of Former Ambassadors of at the Foreign Service Academy. (November 6).

“We say to suppliers: global suppliers, don’t worry, you can ship your gas to Bangladesh. We will support you Bangladesh. You will have no worries about payment. So it’s kind of a guarantee. If it is done like this, the import price from Bangladesh will really come down,” he said in response to a question about the high gas prices paid by Bangladesh.

In arrears with Adani

Speaking about the ongoing issue of payment to the Adani Group, he said: “I see statements not only from the government but also from Adani. I think there are definitely a lot of facts and a lot of speculation. What is certainly clear is that there is a lot of pressure (from various sectors) right now on the government’s capacity…”

Abdoulaye Seck also said that the World Bank team met with the energy advisor.

The WB Country Director continued: “We will provide support to the country, the budget which is supported by reforms in the areas of green growth and environmental sustainability. But we would also like to support a number of other interventions.

Be it the health sector, be it dealing with floods. We are very confident that with strong economic fundamentals and the right policy adjustment, Bangladesh can return to a strong and sustainable growth path.”

He also said that the tragic events of July and August called for a renewed focus on bold and timely reforms. These are important to address key economic challenges.

“In Washington, our leadership expressed its strongest commitment to the people of Bangladesh and especially to the youth.”

About cenbank policy

However, he criticized the Bangladesh Bank’s policy for depleting foreign reserves.

“I think the reason for this was a wrong policy by Bangladesh Bank, which tried to defend the exchange rate which was not sustainable. Why did Bangladesh go from $40+ billion to now $19 billion or so? It is because Bangladesh Bank was defending this artificial action. trade at the price of $1 billion per month for almost two years… We pushed a lot: don’t do this, in April Bangladesh Bank introduced this crawling peg and did a rating.”