Aid disbursement 74pc up during July-Nov period

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Nazmul Ahsan
Foreign aid disbursement increased by about $ 500 million or 74 per cent during the first five months (July-November) of the current (2009-2010) fiscal year compared with that of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, according to provisional estimate of the Economic Relations Division (ERD).
However, aid commitment during the period under review dropped by $45 million or 3.27 per cent over that of the same period of the previous fiscal year.
The total aid disbursed between July-November of 2009 stood at $1179.51 million, against $ 684.37 million disbursed in the same period of the previous fiscal. Of the total amount, $1046.14 million came as loan, while the remaining $133.37 million as grant.
The amount of aid (loan and grant) disbursed during July-November period of the previous fiscal year was $684.37 million, including $534.01 million loan and $150.17 million grant, the ERD figure shows.
The enhanced disbursement of aid has taken place during the first five months of the current fiscal year, particularly in last November, as a number of development projects were approved in November against which global lenders including the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB) have disbursed their committed funds, officials in the ERD said.
The ADB alone disbursed $ 705.05 million in November, totaling $839.65 million during July-November of the current fiscal year. The amount of aid disbursed by the ADB during the same period of the previous fiscal year was $379.45 million, shows the ERD figure.
The aid disbursement by the WB was $188.49 million from July to November of 2009-2010 fiscal year, of which $88.51 million was disbursed in November. The WB disbursed $138.06 million during the first five months of the previous fiscal.
The ERD officials said the aid disbursement situation has improved following disbursement of larger volume of aid by the ADB and the WB against a number of projects and budgetary support credit.
The scenario in aid disbursement would have been better had the government ministries and agencies improved their implementation capacity, admitted officials in the planning ministry.
The development project implementation capacity of government agencies has been on the decline in recent years.