Prompted to look in to this after watching an RT documentary on the tannery industry in Bangladesh. Its not viewable at the website but you can get an idea of the human cost from this youtube short:
Colors of Water: Dhaka's Leather Tanneries
It highlights the desperate need for infrastructure investment in Bangladesh - the country isn't credit worthy enough to attract foreign loans nor does it have the domestic savers to raise funds from bonds issues.
Yet it looks as if a solution has been around for two decades. In 1994 China started self-financing infrastructure development through its land-lease model: government sold usage rights to land it owned to commercial enterprises building offices, factories and housing, and then used the income from leases to develop local amenities such as roads, water and electricity services that in turn enhanced the land's potential for economic growth.
No taxes, no foreign creditors required. The land-lease option is given here, p11:
No such solutions from international financial institutions charged with fostering 'development' in countries like Bangladesh. The World Bank's involvement in the country seemingly goes back to 2001 and is summarised here. No mention of the above option. Two World Bank research papers on land-lease in 2006 and in 2010 talk up the negatives:
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