"We are happy with the overall actions of the last couple of months, which is an indication that reform process is moving forward," Vinaya Swaroop, lead economist of the World Bank (WB) Dhaka office, told reporters yesterday at a briefing on the fourth instalment of Development Support Credit (DSC) for Bangladesh.

WB Acting Country Director Qaiser Khan, Senior Economist Zahid Hussain and Senior Financial Analyst Raihan Elahi were present.

Of the credit, $200 million will be given as the fourth DSC instalment and the rest as a budget support for the education sector.

The aid, supposed to be disbursed in August-September in 2006, was suspended due to unmet conditions that include corporatisation of nationalised commercial banks, combating corruption and some reforms in power sector.

The proposal for the $200 million credit is likely to be presented to the WB Board on May 29 for approval. "If the board gives nod, the loans will be available to the government sometime in June, 2007," Swaroop said.

Apart from the $200 million DSC, the bank is providing $100 million as budget support to improve quality and carry out reforms in the education sector, WB Acting Country Director Qaiser Khan said. "We will start negotiation soon and the money will be available before the end of the current fiscal," he added.

Responding to a question about the ACC, Swaroop said the WB is ready to provide technical support to make the anti-graft body stronger, if the government and commission ask for it.

Raihan Elahi said increasing power generation and distributing it properly as well as decreasing losses in the power sector were the two main suggestions from the WB.

"The government has prepared a least cost generation action plan for the power sector, which is now in the approval stage," he said, adding that at the same time the government is preparing for financing the action plan.

On Independent Power Plant (IPP), he said the past government initiated to give work order for the IPP and there were a number of tender and re-tender for the job. But ultimately, no one was awarded the work due to lack of transparency and competitiveness, Elahi noted.

Another WB condition for the power sector was to prepare a financial restructuring plan for it, which the government had prepared already, the WB financial expert said. "Some work have already begun on the basis of the plan and due to this, the financial condition of the Power Development Board (PDB) has marked an improvement recently," he added.