The government endorsed Thursday a Tk 1.73 trillion Annual Development Programme (ADP), including a record 1,347 projects for the next fiscal.
It also allocated additional Tk 78.69 billion for the state-owned autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies in the development programme for the fiscal year (FY) 2018-19 to implement their 105 projects.
The outlay for the next fiscal is 16.59 per cent or Tk 246.19 billion higher than that of the revised allocation of FY2018.
The National Economic Council (NEC), headed by the Prime Minister, endorsed the ADP at a meeting in Dhaka, planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told reporters.
He said out of the total spend, Tk 1.13 trillion will come from the government's internal resources and the remaining Tk 600 billion from the external sources in the form of the project aid.
Besides, the autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies will provide Tk 78.69 billion from their own coffers to implement their ongoing projects, he added.
In the current fiscal, the government has revised the ADP in the third quarter, trimming the allocation to Tk 1.48 trillion from the original outlay of Tk 1.56 trillion due to poor performance of the government's executing agencies in project implementation.
Until April of the current fiscal, the government implemented some 48 per cent of the Tk 1.48 trillion revised ADP.
In the new ADP for the next fiscal, the transport sector has received the highest Tk 454.49 billion, 24.29 per cent of the total outlay.
The second highest allocation has been made for the power sector. This sector has received Tk 229.30 billion, which is 13.25 per cent of the total ADP.
Then, the infrastructure planning, water supply and housing sector get the third-highest allocation of Tk 178.90 billion (10.34 per cent), the rural development and rural institutions sector the fourth-highest Tk 166.90 billion (9.65 per cent) and the education and religion sector the fifth highest Tk 166.20 billion (9.61 per cent).
According to the Planning Commission, a total of 1,347 development projects have been included in the ADP for the next fiscal.
Officials said out of 1,452 projects, some 1,228 are related to investment and 117 technical assistance.
And two projects are supported by the Japan Debt Cancellation Fund and the remaining 105 are for the autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies of the government.
The fresh ADP has included 78 development projects, which will be implemented under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative.
Part of the national budget, the development programme is dedicated to the country's infrastructure development and social sector improvements.
When asked about the quality of the development project work, Mr Kamal said the government would focus on the reforms of the government agencies in the next five-year plan to ensure better coordination as well as quality improvement of the development work.
"We have so far failed to carry out reforms in the core area of the government like the education sector. From the next five-year plan, our main focus will be on the reforms and quality implementation of development work," he said.
Meanwhile, General Economic Division (GED) member Professor Shamsul Alam said the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) had identified seven challenges for project implementation.
According to the IMED, the development project proposals have no adequate data and statistics on the sustainability of the projects, concrete information on the beneficiaries, and the evaluation indicators.
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