BD gets $50m ADB Loan for Setting up Energy Efficient Brick Kilns

The Manila-based anti-poverty lender Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide US$50 million loans to support setting up of energy-efficient brick kilns in Bangladesh, officials

said.

The multi-lateral lender and Bangladesh government signed a loan deal Wednesday in Dhaka in this connection, ADB Dhaka office said.

Iqbal Mahmood, senior secretary of Economic Relations Division (ERD) and Ms Teresa Kho, country director of ADB's Bangladesh Resident Mission, signed the agreement.

Under the project, ADB will provide $50 million in local currency to Bangladesh Bank which will relend the funds to participating financial institutions.

These financial institutions will then provide loans to brick producers seeking to upgrade their existing kilns to cleaner ones, or to those looking to build the cleaner kilns

for the first time.

"Brick-making is one of the industries that generates large amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses," said ADB chief Teresa Kho.

"By helping brick makers to switch to cleaner kinds of kilns, the air in Bangladesh will be cleaner and people's health much improved," she added.

The brick sector contributes around one per cent of the Bangladesh economy.

However, it is highly polluting, burning at least 6.0 million tonness of coal and emitting about 9.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) every year, largely because most of

the estimated 5,000 local brick fields use the highly polluting fixed chimney kilns, ADB said.

For more.

https://www.energybangla.com/2012/06/23/2220.html#.T-hAnBfrrSg