Dhaka, Bangladesh, December 6, 2010—
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is working with Eastern Bank Limited to encourage financing of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in Bangladesh to strengthen the bank’s green portfolio.
IFC is helping Eastern Bank identify opportunities for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and cleaner production financing for the bank’s corporate, small, and midsize clients. IFC’s advisory support will include training bankers to enhance skills, supporting product development, and helping develop energy and cleaner-production audit services. IFC will also share findings of market-potential studies and support Eastern Bank’s targeted awareness-raising activities related to sustainable-energy finance.
“Our partnership with IFC comes at a valuable time, and we hope to develop a niche market and target clients for renewable-energy, energy-efficiency, and cleaner-production financing across a diverse spectrum of sectors,” said Ali Reza Iftekhar, Managing Director and CEO, Eastern Bank Limited.
Ian Crosby, Manager of IFC Advisory Services in Bangladesh said, “Given the acute energy crisis in Bangladesh and the environmental degradation as a result of economic growth, businesses are consciously adopting cleaner and more efficient means of production and operation to address the challenge.”
Textiles, being one of the sectors where IFC has been conducting cleaner production assessments, is expected to be among the first to obtain financing from Eastern Bank as part of this initiative. The financing will support implementation of the recommendations of these assessments that will eventually result in significant energy and water savings in the operations of selected textiles factories.
“Eastern Bank has taken a very important step in helping its private sector clients become more energy efficient,” said Miles Stump, IFC Global Product Leader for Sustainable Energy Finance, who was in Dhaka to share best practices with local banks.
IFC’s overall strategy for abatement of greenhouse-gas emissions focuses on building capacity of financial intermediaries to offer products for renewable-energy and energy-efficiency projects.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in developing countries. We create opportunity for people to escape poverty and improve their lives. We do so by providing financing to help businesses employ more people and supply essential services, by mobilizing capital from others, and by delivering advisory services to ensure sustainable development. In a time of global economic uncertainty, our new investments climbed to a record $18 billion in fiscal 2010. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
