Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a short visit to Bangladesh on 6-7 September, 2014. Though a short one, the visit has important ramifications in advancing the bond of partnership between Bangladesh and Japan. The august visit opened the big opportunity of large scale Japanese investments in Bangladesh in the areas of infrastructure, energy, electricity, information technology, textiles, pharmaceuticals and automobiles etc.
Japan is now a great economic power in the world. Japan is providing continuous support to Bangladesh as grant/aid and technical assistance since independence. Japan's ODA disbursement to Bangladesh reached USD 5735.53 million during 2008 to 2012 of which 85 per cent was in the form of grant with minimum conditions for compliance. This time, Premier Shinzo Abe has assured that the assistance of US$ 6 billion for Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth belt (Big-B) can make some positive impact, if used properly. Already contract has been signed for US$ 1.20 billion, as reported in the media. During the visit of Japanese Prime Minster, members of his entourage, especially the business community and industrialists, expected assurance from Bangladesh on two things: quick approval of projects and congenial climate for investment free from bureaucratic hassles.
Given the culture of administering projects in the country, it is indeed difficult to do away with much of the bottlenecks that often characterise our project implementation process. Besides, there are genuine reasons that sometimes cause undesirable hindrance to timely completion of projects. For example, the time taken for selection of site, availability of land free from encumbrances, paying off compensations to affected people etc., take so much time that projects in most cases end up in time and cost over-run. Clearance required from the department of environmental, especially for red category projects, needs many formalities including preparation of IEE (Initial Environmental Environment), EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment), EMP (Environmental Impact Plan) and Resettlement Plan followed by pathway studies etc.
All these activities are time consuming and challenging factors demanding total commitment of the project management unit and the project director, in particular. The line ministry must be strong enough to monitor and evaluate the performance and project steering committee headed by the secretary of the concerned ministry must be vigilant and committed to see that the project is implemented in right spirit.
Secretary of the ministry is the principal accounting officer and sometimes heads the procurement entity. This is really a vital position to see that project activities progress with utmost focus and devotion failing which the secretary might be implicated in malpractice or misappropriation or may face audit objection from FAPAD (Foreign Aided Project Audit Department). These are the fundamental reasons for which delay occurs in the timely implementation of a project. Besides, in any donor funded project, at different stages of procurement, executing agency (EA) needs to obtain concurrence from the donor from the stage of evaluation of EOI (Expression of Interest) down to the awarding of contract.
The process could be expedited provided the project management unit and project implementation units are very sincere and true to their heart.
But the bureaucrats can not always overcome political pressures when the minister of the relevant ministry desires to award the contract to his relative or his party followers. This is a situation when he cannot disclose his difficulty to donors nor can he proceed with evaluation or rating of the technical and financial evaluation of a particular bid.
Besides, as per procedure of procurement of goods and works for the value exceeding Taka 500 million and for services up to Taka 100 million, there must be approval by the Cabinet Committee for Government Purchase (CCGP) where finance minister is the chairperson to recommend to Prime Minister for approval. Here lies the real challenge for the Secretary of the Ministry and the Project Director to satisfy many ministers who are members of CCGP.
Bangladesh assured the Japanese PM and his delegation to provide special economic zone for Japanese investment. Besides, some specific issues came up for discussion in sidelines, like multi-modal tunnel under the Jamuna, dedicated railway bridge over the same river, multi-modal Dhaka eastern bypass and ecological restoration of four rivers around Dhaka.
So, the government should urgently think over these issues carefully or set up committees to find out ways to expedite implementation of these big infrastructure projects.
Obviously, the issue of best utilisation of grants or aids and technical assistance shall continue to be considered as major factors and the onus of proving the integrity, adherence to the rule of law will be on the government to gain the confidence of Japanese investors. It needs effective coordination among different developing ministries and their commitments in totality. Ministry of Foreign Affairs can create opportunities and they are doing so fairly well. Prime Minister's Office might consider maintaining a strong vigilance on the preparation of DPP and appointment of efficient persons as project directors to steer the wheels of the implementation process with the capacity to maintain good coordination with developing partners.
Popular view is that grant/aid money is not always properly used and creates problems of time and cost over-run due to lapses in integrity and lack of commitments. The bureaucratic complications should in no way stand as bottlenecks for projects to be implemented on time. In spite of many challenges, Bangladesh-Japan friendship shall continue to live long and partnership must advance as a comprehensive one.
The writer is former secretary
and adviser to former
care-taker government.
dknath888@gmail.com
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