DHAKA, June 14 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Bangladeshi government on Tuesday signed an agreement for a 250 million U.S. dollars policy-based loan to further improve the social protection system in Bangladesh for supporting the vulnerable population against socioeconomic challenges.
Fatima Yasmin, secretary of Bangladesh's Economic Relations Division and Edimon Ginting, country director of ADB, virtually signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides.
The program aims at accelerating reforms in increasing the coverage and efficiency of the social protection, improving the financial inclusion of disadvantaged people, and strengthening the response to diversified protection needs, said the Manila-based lender in a statement.
It said the loan is the second subprogram of the Strengthening Social Resilience Program (SSRP) approved in 2021, which helped implement institutional and policy reforms that strengthened the inclusiveness and responsiveness of social protection in Bangladesh.
"ADB remains committed to helping Bangladesh accelerate the socioeconomic recovery and assist the government to promote an integrated social protection program," said the ADB's country director.
"The integrated social protection program will improve social safety net management, deepen financial inclusion, address needs to be based on demographic, geographical, age, gender, and other diversities, and widen the coverage and efficiency of social protection," he added. ■