The World Bank (WB) approved US$250 million financing to help Bangladesh strengthen environment management and promote private sector participation in green investment.
 
The Bangladesh Environmental Sustainability and Transformation (BEST) Project will support the Department of Environment to strengthen its technical and administrative capacity, said a press release today (December 2).
 
The project will also support improving environmental regulations and enforcement to curb pollution and improve environmental quality. The project will pilot new financing mechanisms to promote green investments in targeted sectors.
 
It will also establish a Green Credit Guarantee Scheme to incentivize the financial sector to support green investments to reduce air pollution.
 
Successful implementation of the project will help the country tackle key pollution issues, benefitting over 21 million people living in greater Dhaka and beyond.
 
"Bangladesh's rapid economic growth and urbanization have come at a high environmental cost in terms of pollution. Not only that the pollution is impacting our health, but also it is eroding the country's economic competitiveness," said Dandan Chen, World Bank Acting Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan.
 
"The World Bank has been a long-standing partner to Bangladesh in tackling environmental challenges. This project will strengthen the country's environmental institutions to better control pollution and promote sustainable development," he added.
 
The project will help construct four vehicle inspection centers using private-public partnership modality to inspect about 46,000 vehicles annually. An E-waste management facility will be set up to process 3,500 metric tons of e-waste annually. The project will help reduce over 1 million metric tons of Green House Gas emissions from targeted sources.

BDST: 1833 HRS, DEC 02, 2022
MN