The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has offered its assistance for Bangladesh to set up a deep seaport in the Bay of Bengal.
“We’re working on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. We’ll work on seaport…deep seaport in the future,” ADB director general Juan Miranda told reporters after a meeting with Finance Minister AMA Muhith at the Secretariat on Monday.
About the meeting’s outcome, Miranda said he has been here in Bangladesh to discuss with the government to take long- and short-term development plans in the country as it is one of the best clients of the Manila-based lending agency.
During the meeting, he said, they discussed various issues like social services, agriculture, skilled development and particularly infrastructure.“Infrastructure of a country is very important to development because infrastructure attracts investment and investment attracts jobs,” he said.
Turning to the proposed Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project, the country’s largest infrastructure project, the ADB director general said he personally believes that the Padma Bridge will be built. “We believe this project (Padma Bridge) will be done and it is being done.”
Juan Miranda said the ADB knows that if the bridge project is completed, more than 30 million people of the southwestern region of Bangladesh will be happy.
He said the ADB helps Bangladesh formulate the design of the bridge, river control and build other infrastructure in the bridge project.
After cancellation of loans by the major lending agencies, including the World Bank and the ADB, the government has already taken an initiative to construct the Padma Bridge project with own fund. – UNB
