DHAKA, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Bangladesh government recently signed agreement for 50 million U.S. dollars in loan to promote microenterprise development for inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction.
The assistance will help improve microenterprises' access to finance through the Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), an apex development finance and capacity building organization; and its partner organizations.
Monowar Ahmed, secretary of Economic Relations Division (ERD), and Manmohan Parkash, country director of ADB, signed the agreement on behalf of Bangladesh and ADB, respectively in Dhaka.
"The greatest constraint in developing microenterprises in Bangladesh is the limited access to finance. This project will provide financing to ease this constraint," said Country Director Manmohan Parkash.
"The project also introduces an innovative mobile-based microenterprise financing application on a pilot basis, and boosts forward linkages to agriculture, thus promoting rural growth and income and job opportunities."
To address medium-term challenges, it said, the project will help PKSF develop a financing strategy and carry out institutional strengthening.
For the longer term, the project will develop microenterprise finance operational guidelines for microfinance institutions, said the ADB statement and added it will also assist in clustering microenterprises for business expansion and upscaling with quality control, branding, packaging, and marketing.
