Tuesday, May 15, 2012

ADB approves loan of 50 Mn US $ to Bangladesh

Asian Development Bank has approved a loan of 50 million US dollars to help improve the environment in Bangladesh by financing more energy-efficient brick kilns in the country. ADB’s Board of Directors approved the loan under the Financing Brick Kiln Efficiency Improvement project.

The Bank and Financial Institutions Division under the Bangladesh Ministry of Finance will be the executing agency while Bangladesh Bank will be the implementing agency for the project to be implemented from 2012-2015.The Asian development bank will provide the funds to the Bangladesh bank which will relend the funds to participating financial institutions of the country for providing loans to brick makers seeking to upgrade or build cleaner kinds of kilns.

Anqian Huang, Finance Specialist in the Public Management, Finance Sector, and Trade Division of ADB’s South Asia Department said that Brick-making is one of the biggest polluting industries in Bangladesh and the project will help in making the air cleaner by helping brick makers to switch to cleaner kinds of kilns.

Bangladesh is estimated to have more than 5000 brick fields which contribute around one percent of the country's economy. However the industry is also responsible for air pollution with the brick kilns reported to be burning around 6.0 million tons of coal and emitting at least 9.8 million tons of carbon dioxide every year.

The funds being provided by the ADB is aimed to assist the brick kiln owners to shift to cleaner kiln systems which will use less fuel and also thus result in lesser emission of carbon di oxide.

Apart from this loan, the ADB is also preparing a technical assistance financed by the Government of Japan to assist the Bangladesh government to formulate a brick sector policy and regulations in addition to helping in the process of making the brick makers understand of the value of switching to cleaner kilns.

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