ADB-Bangladesh Partnership Strategy

To reach middle-income status by 2021, Bangladesh is aiming to achieve an average annual growth of 7.4% in real gross domestic product (GDP) under its seventh 5-year plan for fiscal years 2016 to 2020. The country will require a substantial increase in yearly investments from 29.0% of GDP in FY2015 to 34.4% of GDP by FY2020. More than $11 billion in external resources will be needed during the period for public sector investment.

Consistent with the strategic directions set by the ADB’s Strategy 2020 midterm review, the country operations business plan (COBP), 2016-2018 for Bangladesh aims to support the current and emerging development priorities of the government, including activities to sustain strong and inclusive economic growth and strong human development. This COBP is the last under the ADB country partnership strategy, 2011-2015 for Bangladesh.

The COBP will support continued government efforts in industrial development to diversify the economy and in rural development to manage urbanization. ADB will prioritize activities to develop infrastructure, skills, resilience to environmental and climate change, the private sector, and regional cooperation and integration. In terms of Strategy 2020’s drivers of change, activities in the ADB pipeline will seek to strengthen public-private partnerships, improve governance in local governments, enhance skills, and mainstream gender equity and knowledge solutions. Environmental and climate change considerations have been integrated into project interventions.