Asian Development Bank to lend Bangladesh $350m

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Monday that it will extend a loan of 350 million U.S. dollars to Bangladesh to help public and private institutions scale up skill training for 1.25 million young workers. The Manila-based lender said in a statement that the amount will be used to partially fund the Skills for Employment Investment Program of the government of Bangladesh. The program is estimated to cost 1.07 billion U.S. dollars. ADB said the loan for the program will be made in three tranches as part of a seven-year financing facility. The first 100 million tranche is expected to be signed in the coming weeks with the second expected in mid-2015 and the third in mid-2018. The ADB loan will be complemented by 200 million U.S. dollars in co-financing from the government of Bangladesh, 400 million U.S. dollars from other development partners, 90 million U.S. dollars from the private sector and 30 million U.S. dollars from Switzerland. The investment program will support skill training in 15 priority sectors, starting with six sectors: garments and textiles, leather, construction, light engineering, information technology, and shipbuilding. ADB said two-thirds of the Bangladesh workforce had only minimal education and only four percent has received any kind of training.