Foreign aid commitment to Bangladesh is continuing to plunge as it dropped by 60 per cent to US$896.6 million in July-November period of this year due to 'go-slow' in aid confirmation by some key development partners, officials said Wednesday.
The commitment of foreign assistance by the development partners working in Bangladesh was recorded at $896.6 million in loan and grants during July-November period of the current financial year (FY) 2014-15, compared to $1.44 billion in the corresponding period last fiscal, Economic Relations Division (ERD) officials said.
The foreign aid commitment to Bangladesh by the donors recorded a 50 per cent fall to US$659.18 million till the previous month of October, ERD data showed.
The foreign assistance disbursement, however, was a little bit positive showing 1.65 per cent growth to $902 million during the first five months of the current fiscal, compared to $887.3 million in the corresponding period of last FY2014.
Additional Secretary of the ERD Kazi Shofiqul Azam said they are hopeful of foreign aid commitment and disbursement rising in the new calendar year 2015 as some big loans of the World Bank and some other donors are in the pipeline for signing.
Development experts said since the government agencies had failed to implement the ongoing projects in time, aid disbursement had dropped.
They suggested the government to boost the capacity of the project implementers to execute the projects within the targeted time.
ERD statistics, released on Wednesday, showed that in the first five months of the current FY2015, donors working in Bangladesh had made commitment of $896 million assistance- $698 million in loans and $197 million in grants.
Of the $902 million aid disbursement in July-November period this fiscal, the government received $748.2 million loans and $153.8 million grants.
Among the development partners, the World Bank disbursed only $243.71 million, the Asian Development Bank $184 million and Japan $128 million in loans and grants during July-November period of FY2015, the ERD data showed.
Meanwhile, the government during July-November period had made payment of $532.26 million---$455 million as principal amount and $77.23 million interest-- to the development partners against outstanding loans.
In the corresponding period of last FY2014, it made debt services of $529 million--$457.5 million as principal amount while $78.5 million as interests, to the foreign lenders, ERD data showed.
"Negotiations for some pipeline projects were delayed after the new government took over in January last. So, aid commitment has also been affected. I hope, the situation will change in the next year," said a senior ERD official.
Besides, the last political turmoil on the issue of national election also affected aid commitment to Bangladesh, he added.
The government received a record US$3.0 billion foreign aid in the last FY2013-14 following a significant rise in disbursement by the World Bank and China, officials said.
The concessional aid inflow into the country during the period between July 2013 and June 2014 was $189 million higher than that of $2.81 billion in the previous FY2013 and $50 million higher than the $2.95 billion target, the ERD data showed.
kabirhumayan10@gmail.com
Aid commitment drops by 60 pc in five months
FHM Humayan Kabir | Published: December 25, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
Share if you like