DHAKA: Bangladesh Bank Governor, Atiur Rahman, said in a seminar that bank has introduced $500 million funds for green business financing and entrepreneurs can now apply for funds to help meet the cost of implementing energy efficiency measures.
“This will be an incremental fund like Export Development Fund (EDF), which now stands at $1.5bn,” he said.
In 1989, Bangladesh Bank launched the EDF with an initial fund of over $31m to promote exports, with cheaper rates of interest.
The announcement of launching a green fund came in response to recommendations given by experts and entrepreneurs at the “Access to Finance Environmental Sustainability in the Textiles Sector” seminar, jointly organised by the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) and International Finance Corporation.
PRI Executive Director Ahsan H Mansur chaired the seminar, attended by experts, entrepreneurs, lenders, and government officials.
The central bank chief put emphasis on branding the textile industry and other industries, saying the timing of the fund’s launch is critical right now, as the global demand for environment-friendly goods are on the rise.
To popularise environment-friendly technology adoption, he said similar steps, such as setting up apps for female entrepreneurs, will be taken so that information related to green financing can be available.
Describing different measures already taken by the central bank, Atiur said Bangladesh Bank has so far identified 47 green products under the refinance scheme with the addition of three new products, including in the garment sector.
All financial institutions have also been directed to allocate at least 5% of their loan to green finance by 2016, he added.
BB governor urged the government to allocate the fund in the next national budget for green financing so that the central bank can lend at lower interest rates.
