Economic Relations Division has said the delay in implementation of foreign fund-supported projects is due to slow process of recruiting manpower, acquiring lands, approving projects, procurement of materials and appointing local or foreign consultants.
According to the officials, the average time required for implementing a project is now 6 years, which the government plans to reduce to below 5 years by mid-2016.
The reasons why the projects are delayed were discussed at a regular cabinet meeting yesterday, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
PM directed the officials concerned to speed up the process though she said the use of funds was faster and more efficient compared to neighbouring countries.
Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said a total of about $19.03bn (Tk146,530 crore) foreign grants are waiting to be disbursed for various projects as of June this year.
The amount has been accumulated since independence, of which, about $8.2bn were committed in last two fiscal years only.
Bhuiyan said Bangladesh has received $86.89bn commitments from donors as of June since its Independence and used $67.59bn of the amount to implement different projects.
The government received the highest fund commitments from its foreign donors in last two fiscal years, which has resulted in the increased fund to be in the pipeline.
An average time to implement a project with foreign fund is six years now. The government wants to make it faster and reduce the time to below five years by June 2016.
“Comparing with the other neighboring countries we are doing better in using foreign funds. However, we also want to make it faster,” cabinet secretary quoted PM as saying.
The meeting reviewed that the FY2013-14 was the best year ever after Independence as around $3bn was released from $5.6bn commitment.
Md Mujibul Haque Chunnu, state minister for labour and employment, said ERD cleared its position that the amount of unreleased fund increases as the commitment increases.
The meeting discussed the five reasons behind delay in fund use or project implementation and asked the authorities concerned to bolster the process.
“The PM directed the ERD officials and the other ministers to make the process faster,” Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told journalists after the cabinet meeting.