Dhaka, May 15:

The World Bank will provide Bangladesh with $3 billion in development credits over four years to help speed up the impoverished country’s economic and policy reforms, bank officials said Monday.

“We will provide the credit so the government can go ahead with its plan for reforms,” said Praful C. Patel, the bank’s Vice President for South Asia, at a press briefing, as he unveiled an assistance strategy report for Bangladesh for 2006-2009.

He said the credits were being provided to help Bangladesh continue making impressive economic and social gains.

Almost half of Bangladesh’s 144 million people live on less than one dollar a day, but it has achieved steady economic growth of 4-5 per cent annually since 1990s, Patel said, quoting the report. It’s expected to achieve 6.5 per cent economic growth in 2006 fiscal year, according to a recent forecast by the Asian Development Bank.

The country’s population growth rate declined from 2.5 per cent in the 1980s to 1.7 per cent in 1990-2004, while enrollment of students in primary schools increased from 72 per cent in 1980 to 98 per cent in 2001, according to the new strategy paper.

The country’s infant mortality rate has declined from 145 to 46 per 1,000 births between 1970 and 2003, while the child mortality rate declined from 230 to 69 per 1,000, the report said.

The report also praised the country’s efforts in attaining some Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations, saying that Bangladesh has outperformed most low-income countries and its South Asian neighbors - with the exception of Sri Lanka - across a wide range of social indicators.

The bank will continue to support Bangladesh’s ailing power sector and also help

attract foreign investment in water and sewerage, roads and railways, the report said. Alma Kanani, an economist with the World Bank, said that pervasive corruption was slowing down the growth and deterring investment.

“The issue of corruption comes immediately when we talk about the growth of the private sector and foreign investment,” she said.

The South Asian nation has been labeled one of the world’s most corrupt nations by the Berlin-based corruption watchdog, Transparency International. The government has disputed the finding.