Dhaka gets record $1.50b foreign aid in first nine months of fiscal

FE Team | Published: April 17, 2010 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FHM Humayan Kabir
Bangladesh has received a record US$1.50 billion in foreign aid in the first three quarters of the current fiscal defying the global economic meltdown that sharply slashed aid to poor nations, officials said Thursday.
The amount of assistance is $64 million over what the country received during the same period last financial year 2009, a senior economic relations division (ERD) official told the FE.
"Negating many predictions, foreign aid flow to the country has been showing steady growth. The economic downturn has failed to affect the external resource income," the official said.
The multilateral donors are still providing adequate financial support to our development works and they are committed to continue their assistance in future, the ERD official said.
The official said the government is hopeful of receiving additional $903 million in the last quarter (April-June) to achieve its $2.40 billion foreign aid target in 2009-10 fiscal.
The ERD officials said the government has aid pledge for $2.11 billion for July-March this fiscal. The aid commitment in the same period last year was $2.26 billion.
The government's foreign aid mobilising agency-ERD, is hopeful of confirming $3.50 billion foreign assistance deals with different donors and lending agencies.
ERD statistics showed the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank are on the top two positions in terms of aid disbursement till March 2010, whereas the largest bilateral donor Japan's support has dipped.
ADB bankrolled $955 million and the World Bank $277 million during the first three quarters, while Japan has disbursed only $66 million, the ERD said.
Yet the ERD sees the target "very much achievable" now.
"If the government agencies could execute their projects efficiently in the last quarter, the target will be achieved," the senior ERD official said.
The foreign aid disbursement depends on implementation of the donor-funded projects. The donors usually provide their committed funds after execution of the development projects.
The ERD official downplayed the concern that the aid flow would dip as rich countries were busy bailing out their own economies rather than bankrolling the poor nations.
"We don't think the global recession will have any major impact on our external aid flow in the near future as the donors are still keen to support us honouring their commitments," the official said.
A spokesman of the World Bank, the biggest donor of Bangladesh, said major aid agencies and bilateral donors do not have any plan to cut aid to Dhaka despite being affected by global recession.
"We've adequate funds to help Bangladesh. We will be continuing our support to the country despite the global economic fallout," the spokesman told the FE.
Many people, including some donors, had earlier forecast that Bangladesh's foreign aid flow would be hit hard along with its export and manpower sectors in the wake of the global meltdown.