DHAKA, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Bangladeshi government on Sunday signed a financing agreement with the World Bank to improve the transparency and efficiency of its major cash transfer programs.

Mahmuda Begum, an additional secretary of Economic Relations Division of Bangladesh, and Qimiao Fan, World Bank country director for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, signed the agreement of 300 million U.S. dollars on behalf of their respective sides in Dhaka.

In a statement, the Washington-based lender said the "Cash Transfer Modernization Project" "will help the Department of Social Services (DSS) modernize the country's four major social protection programs using cash transfers by improving beneficiary targeting, program administration, and benefit payments."

The programs are: the Old Age Allowance; Allowances for the Widow, Deserted and Destitute Women; Allowances for the Financially Insolvent Disabled; and Stipends for Disabled Students, it said and added these programs collectively reach about six and half million of the country's poorest people.

In fiscal year 2018, according to the World Bank statement, Bangladesh spent about 5.8 billion dollars on social protection or about 2 percent of its Gross Domestic Product and improving the efficiency of these programs will help Bangladesh to use public resources more effectively.