Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The central bank of Bangladesh is now providing support through its Investment Promotion and Financing Facility (IPFF) for work including feasibility study on prospective PPP projects.
The IPFF is a project of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), under which all sorts of support are lent to the PPP Office for project implementation.
“We’re planning to finance at least three projects, on which the Detailed feasibility studies (DFSs) have already been completed,” a senior official of the IPFF project said.
The BB disbursed $2.57 million (BDT 180 million) from the IPFF through two private commercial banks for two projects—a power generation company and a water treatment plant.
“We’re now working to release a fund to the tune of BDT 150 million to a company within this month to establish a central effluent treatment plan in the Chittagong Export Processing Zone,” the central banker said without elaborating.
The central bank earlier resumed its re-financing facility for infrastructure development with a target to disburse US$ 300 million in six key areas including ports, power, environment, industrial estates and water supply.
The BB has received $257 million from the World Bank under the central bank’s IPFF project, of which $7.0 million is in the form of technical assistance.
“We’re disbursing the fund through selected commercial banks and non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs),” another BB official said.
The areas, which have already been identified for financing from the IPFF, are power generation including captive power plant, port development including internal container terminal, environment, highways and expressways, airports and water supply.
The BB official also said over the period up to December 2014 in the second phase of the IPFF a broader range of physical infrastructure projects besides power generation would be financed.
In 2007, the central bank launched the five-year IPFF project with a fund of $50 million, provided by the World Bank under the PPP concept.
Under the existing provisions, the IPFF money is being disbursed on the basis of the debt-equity ratio of 70:30 to the entrepreneurs. The central bank provides 56 per cent of the total debt and the remaining 14 percent is invested by the banks or the NBFIs concerned.
BBN/SSR/AD-20Apr13-3:06 pm (BST)
