The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has prepared a time-bound agreed action plan with the government to gear up the implementation progress of its funded-projects in Bangladesh, accelerate its fund disbursement and thus deliver better results for the beneficiaries, reports UNB.
The ADB recently held a tripartite portfolio review meeting (TPRM) with government officials here to review the projects being assisted by the Bank.
Representatives from the line ministries and project directors concerned were present at the meeting jointly chaired by Economic Relations Division (ERD) Secretary Md Mezbahuddin and ADB country director Kazuhiko Higuchi.
Talking to UNB, an ERD official said the meeting decided to act on a project-wise time-bound agreed action plan to ensure better outcomes of the ADB-assisted projects for which a draft paper has been prepared in consultation with the line ministries.
He said the ADB team will send the draft of the time-bound agreed action plan to ERD and then it would take opinions from the executing agencies of the relevant line ministries.
Contacted, ERD Joint Secretary Saifuddin Ahmed said the meeting highlighted some generic issues like lengthy process in approval of Development Project Proforma (DPP) and problems in procurement and land acquisition as some of the major issues which are hampering the ADP implementation progress.
Since the disbursement of fund by the Manila-based lending agency was encouraging in the 2014 calendar year, the ERD Joint Secretary, however, said the ADB team expressed its satisfaction over the pace of disbursement of fund as well as stressed the need for keeping up the momentum.
Saifuddin Ahmed said the last TPRM of the current calendar year aimed at speeding up the implementation progress of ADB-funded projects as also to enhance the fund disbursement. He said the probable future allocation of the lending agency also depends on the pace of implementation progress.
He said the meeting discussed the status of the ADB-funded ongoing projects as well as to speed up the process of finalising the projects in the pipeline.
The ERD Joint Secretary said both the ADB and the government at the meeting noted that most of the ADB-funded projects are on track except a few ones.
He also informed that the next TPRM is likely to be held in April or May, 2015.
