Dhaka: The World Bank (WB) President Jim Yong Kim on Monday announced USD 1billion fund for Bangladesh in next two years in support of the country’s child health and nutrition.

Visiting World Bank Group (WB Group) President Jim Yong Kim made the disclosure while addressing a joint briefing after his meeting with Finance Minister AMA Muhith at the Finance Ministry.

Appreciating Bangladesh success in human resource development, the WB Group chief said the country has focused on education and access to basic necessities.

Welcoming the WB president’s visit, Finance AMA Muhith said the problem with the donor agency over the Padma Bridge issue has been resolved and Bangladesh has been expecting more WB assistance for different sectors.

‘I personally believe, after his taking over presidency, through his intervention we at last resolved the problem went forward and in this period our relationship has been very good,’ he told reporters.

WB Group President Jim Yong Kim arrived here on Sunday afternoon on a three-day visit as part of a global End Poverty Day campaign.

As per the schedule, he will join a programme ‘End Global Poverty by 2030: Sharing Bangladesh’s Experience’ to be held at Osmani Memorial Auditorium where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to be present.

Kim said Bangladesh is the largest recipient of the International Development Assistance (IDA) of the World Bank and such funding will be increased by 50 percent globally from which Bangladesh will also get benefit from increased funding.

He said he arrived in Dhaka to encourage Bangladesh’s move for investing in human capital, and mentioned that Bangladesh is growing over 6-7 per cent which is the highest among the poor countries and its investment in human capital will be critical.

Responding to a question on Padma Bridge issue, the World Bank said his agency continued discussion about it, but the government began work on it.

‘The development of Bangladesh is extremely important to the World Bank and we’re aggressively looking for supporting Bangladesh. Funding for climate change should be coming for Bangladesh.

He said the WB will be discussing over the next few days how the climate change funding could be increased.

The Finance Minister said Bangladesh has been receiving the largest chunk of IDA assistance from the donor agency. ‘So far, we’ve taken almost $24 billion from the institution and every sector has received fund from the World Bank.’

He said today the global motto is to alleviate poverty by 2030 and the World Bank is a party to it. ‘We share the same views, we take a lot from it, and we also gave a lot to it.’

Earlier, Finance Minister AMA Muhith held a meeting with World Bank (WB) Group President Jim Yong Kim at the secretariat office at about 9:15am.

He will also join a programme ‘End Global Poverty by 2030: Sharing Bangladesh’s Experience’ to be held at Osmani Memorial Auditorium at 4.15pm tomorrow. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to attend the programme.

The WB president will also hold meeting with other senior government officials during his stay in Dhaka for broad ranging discussions on the country’s development progress and explore opportunities to deepen the World Bank’s engagement.

Kim is scheduled to visit Bangabandhu Museum in Dhanmondi and head-office of Bkash at Mahakhail on Monday. He will also visit WB funded projects in Barisal on the third day of his visit on Tuesday. He will also attend a press conference before leaving Bangladesh on the same day.

According to the WB Dhaka office, one of the major objectives of his visit would be exploring a bigger avenue for promoting private sector investment by strengthening governance and improving the investment climate.

During the visit of the WB top brass, Bangladesh and its people will receive global recognition on 17 October for dramatically reducing poverty when the World Bank Group marks the End Poverty Day aiming to alleviating extreme poverty by 2030, WB said in a web-posting.

‘His visit is intended to draw attention to Bangladesh’s impressive record in dramatically reducing extreme poverty,’ said a WB media release earlier.

‘I’m very much looking forward to seeing firsthand Bangladesh’s progress in improving the livelihoods of tens of millions, empowering women, and enhancing the quality of education,’ the release said quoting Kim as saying.

‘Many developing countries in the world can learn important lessons from Bangladesh to reduce extreme poverty and to promote sustainable development,’ he added.