ADB to give $90m to fight climate impacts, train school teachers
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide US$20 million in loan for upgrading infrastructures to help protect rural areas of Bangladesh from climate impacts.
The bank also will provide US$70 million in loan to further improve the quality of training for secondary school teachers of the country, said another report of the news agency.
An ADB press release said the "Coastal Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Project" is targeted to run for six years, with an expected completion date of December 2018.
The ADB will provide a concessional Asian Development Fund loan of US$20 million equivalent for the project.
IFAD and KfW will provide parallel co-financing of US$60 million equivalent and US$8.8 million equivalent respectively, with additional support of US$30 million from the ADB-administered Strategic Climate Fund and more than US$31 million from the government of Bangladesh.
The project targets climate resilience improvements in 12 rural coastal districts--Bagerhat, Barguna, Barisal, Bhola, Gopalganj, Jhalakati, Khulna, Madaripur, Patuakhali, Pirojpur, Satkhira and Shariatpur.
An agreement was signed at the Economic Relations Division (ERD) in the capital's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar yesterday as the ADB will provide US$70 million in loan to improve quality of training for secondary school teachers.
Senior Secretary of ERD Iqbal Mahmood and ADB Country Director M Teresa Kho signed the deal on behalf of their respective sides.
Out of the total project cost of US$85 million, the ADB will provide US$70 million from the concessional loan (ADF) while the government will provide US$15 million. The concessional ADF loan has a maturity of 32 years, including a grace period of eight years.
The rate of interest of the loan is one percent during the grace period and 1.5 percent thereafter.
The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education will implement the project from July 2012 to June 2017.
The assistance is expected to improve the overall quality of education in Bangladesh under the Second Teaching Quality Improvement in Secondary Education Project.
"This project will strengthen teachings, and help deliver quality education that will prepare Bangladesh's students for the job market or to pursue further education,” said ADB's Country Director M Teresa Kho.
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