$392m foreign aid received in Q1
Sunday, 2 November 2008
FHM Humayan Kabir
The government received foreign aid worth US$392.40 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2008-09, an official said Saturday.
This is $31.32 million higher over the amount received during the same period last fiscal.
"We've received $358.312 million as loans and $34.93 million in grants from donors in the period from July to September of the current fiscal," an economic relations division (ERD) official told the FE.
The donors made commitment of $411 million worth of assistance during the period, he added.
In the same period last FY08, the government received assistance worth $316.08 million.
The ERD official said: "Flow of grant has fallen in the first quarter of this fiscal. Only $34.093 million came as grants."
The amount of grants during the period last year was $114.18 million.
"The amount of assistance has fallen as the development project executing agencies have failed to spend money," a senior ERD official said.
During the period the development programme implementing ministries and divisions spent only Tk 23.88 billion or nine per cent of the total annual development programme (ADP) outlay of Tk256 billion for FY09.
Major portion of fund in the current year's ADP outlay will come from the foreign assistance.
The government has set an external resources target at Tk 145.9 billion ($2.11 billion) out of the total ADP outlay of Tk 256.0 billion ($3.71 billion) for the current fiscal.
The senior ERD official said that if the government agencies could speed up their project implementation, targeted aid from the donors would be disbursed.
"Performance of different agencies and monitoring of project implementation will have to be improved for receiving the targeted foreign aid this year," he said.
The government last FY08 received $1.956 billion worth of aid from donor countries and agencies.
Bangladesh in FY07 received foreign assistance worth $1.63 billion compared with $1.57 billion in the previous year.
The government received foreign aid worth US$392.40 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2008-09, an official said Saturday.
This is $31.32 million higher over the amount received during the same period last fiscal.
"We've received $358.312 million as loans and $34.93 million in grants from donors in the period from July to September of the current fiscal," an economic relations division (ERD) official told the FE.
The donors made commitment of $411 million worth of assistance during the period, he added.
In the same period last FY08, the government received assistance worth $316.08 million.
The ERD official said: "Flow of grant has fallen in the first quarter of this fiscal. Only $34.093 million came as grants."
The amount of grants during the period last year was $114.18 million.
"The amount of assistance has fallen as the development project executing agencies have failed to spend money," a senior ERD official said.
During the period the development programme implementing ministries and divisions spent only Tk 23.88 billion or nine per cent of the total annual development programme (ADP) outlay of Tk256 billion for FY09.
Major portion of fund in the current year's ADP outlay will come from the foreign assistance.
The government has set an external resources target at Tk 145.9 billion ($2.11 billion) out of the total ADP outlay of Tk 256.0 billion ($3.71 billion) for the current fiscal.
The senior ERD official said that if the government agencies could speed up their project implementation, targeted aid from the donors would be disbursed.
"Performance of different agencies and monitoring of project implementation will have to be improved for receiving the targeted foreign aid this year," he said.
The government last FY08 received $1.956 billion worth of aid from donor countries and agencies.
Bangladesh in FY07 received foreign assistance worth $1.63 billion compared with $1.57 billion in the previous year.