The proposed programme consists of 12 projects, totalling $990 million, made up of $440 million from the concessional Asian Development Fund and $550 million from the ordinary capital resources (OCR), the ADB said in a news release yesterday.

A CSP update is prepared every year taking into account the continued relevance of the programme, its implementation, and the ADB's operational plan for the next three years.

The 12 loans in the pipeline for Bangladesh focus on four priority sectors, namely, agriculture and natural resources, social services including education and health care, finance, and physical infrastructure.

In line with the government strategy, OCR lending will be largely used to reduce the country's dependence on costly supplier's credit for energy and transport infrastructure improvement, which will directly contribute to economic growth, the release noted.

"The final lending allocations," however, "will depend on country performance and resource availability," it added.

The lending programme will be complemented by 17 technical assistance grants, amounting to about $10 million.

The assistance programme is envisaged to reduce poverty through promoting broad-based and private sector-led economic growth, improving governance, fostering human development including mainstreaming gender concerns, and promoting regional co-operation.

The ADB said, in governance reform, the priority will be given to strengthening support for governance initiatives, assisting public administration reforms and improving sector-specific governance practices.

"Sound macroeconomic management, structural and sector reforms, and political stability are crucial for implementing the CSP, which aims to assist the government in consolidating and advancing the reform process, improving the investment climate and moving the economy to a higher growth path," said ADB Bangladesh Country Director Toru Shibuichi.

The yesterday's CSP update observed that macroeconomic and sector reforms have contributed to Bangladesh economy's buoyant performance, reporting, "Gross domestic product growth rose from 4.4 per cent in FY2002 to 5.3 per cent in FY2003, and is estimated at 5.5 per cent in FY2004."

According to the bank's evaluation, an increase in revenue and pruning of development expenditures has helped contain the budget deficit.

Besides, strong growth in exports and increasing overseas workers' remittances have improved the current account of the balance of payments to record a surplus of 0.5 per cent of the GDP during FY2003, the ADB release added.

Shibuichi however apprehends that the devastating floods last July might strain the macroeconomic performance to some degree during FY2005. He said, "ADB will soon field a mission to undertake a needs assessment for possible flood rehabilitation assistance."

As of end-2003, ADB extended 152 public sector loans to Bangladesh totalling $7.21 billion and $152.17 million under 285 technical assistance grants. There are now 25 ongoing ADB-aided projects valued at $2.13 billion.