Aid disbursement declines in Q1

FHM Humayan KabirForeign aid disbursement recorded a decline in the first quarter of the current fiscal as the country received funds worth US$ 246 million, $70 million less than the same period of last fiscal. Finance ministry officials said Tuesday that the major donors including the World Bank (WB) disbursed only $42.35 million in the first quarter (Q1) of the current fiscal. Economic Relations Division (ERD) statistics showed that the government during July-September this fiscal has received $246.72 million in loans and grants. In the same period of the last fiscal, the donors disbursed assistance worth about $316 million. Donors, both bilateral and multilateral, made commitment to provide $1.43 billion worth of aid during the July-September period of the current fiscal 2011-12. "We have not yet received any budgetary support. Moreover, those with the responsibility of project implementation have failed to execute foreign aided . 3 to a drop in the flow," a senior ERD official told the FE. The ERD official said the government received $133.46 million in loans and $112.76 million in grants in July-September period this fiscal from the bilateral and multilateral donors including WB, Asian Development Bank and Japan. The government project executing agencies could spend only Tk 26.22 billion, six per cent of the total Tk 460 billion (US$ 6.57 billion) of the development budget during the first quarter of the current fiscal. Of the fund spent, nine per cent came from the government's internal resources and only 1.0 per cent from the external resources. The ERD official said as major donors such as World Bank and Japan released 'very poor amount' of aid in the Q1, the overall aid flow was affected. The country's largest multilateral donor World Bank has disbursed only $42.35 million and the Japan government $15.56 million during Q1 of the current financial year 2011-12. The Manila-based lender Asian Development Bank (ADB) disbursed the highest amount, $66.38 million, against different projects in Q1 of FY 2012. "If the government agencies can speed up their project implementation, aid target could be met in the current fiscal," the ERD official said. The government has set a target of US$ 3.0 billion in foreign aid inflow in the current national budget to upgrade its infrastructure and social-economic conditions.