BANGLADESH NEWS
A day after Syed Abul Hossain resigned from the cabinet, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said on Tuesday that the government is now hopeful of getting World Bank financial assistance for the Padma bridge project.
“We are trying to accommodate the proposals (of WB),” the financial minister said while replying to reporters’ queries at his secretariat office.
Asked whether Abul’s removal came after getting any signal from the WB, the minister said the government got a hint and that is why it took the decision.
Abul resigned as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Minister on Monday amid pressures from in and outside the government.
He was removed from the communications ministry and given the charge of ICT ministry on December 5 last year after the World Bank brought corruption allegation against him and suspended its $ 1.2 billion loan for the $ 2.9 billion Padma bridge project.
Abul announced his resignation a day after the finance minister said that the government might consider accepting the World Bank's fourth condition to persuade the global lender to review its cancellation of the Padma bridge loan.
Abul’s resignation is likely to end the 10-month impasse between the government and the WB following the global lender's corruption allegations in the Padma bridge project.
The WB in September last year suspended its promised $1.2 billion funding for the country's biggest infrastructure project.
Construction of the 6.15 kilometre bridge became uncertain when the WB last month cancelled its loan agreement on the grounds that not all its conditions were met.
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