The pace of fund disbursement under the India-Bangladesh Governmental Lines of Credit (LOC) has nearly doubled in one year, as $238.68 million has been disbursed in this time, despite the serious challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The total disbursement will soon reach the $1 billion milestone, according to a press release of the Indian High Commission issued on Monday.
Bangladesh is India’s largest development partner under its LOC programme with the total commitment being $7.862 billion.
The second Meeting of the High-Level Project Monitoring Committee under the India-Bangladesh Governmental Lines of Credit (LOC) was held on Sunday at the Economic Relations Division, Ministry of Finance of Bangladesh.
It was co-chaired by High Commissioner of India Vikram Doraiswami and Economic Relations Division Secretary Fatima Yasmin. Delegates included officials of the ERD, the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Board of Revenue, Finance Division and Ministry of Home Affairs on the Bangladesh side. Representatives of Exim Bank of India, through which the LOCs are being administered, were also present.
This bilateral mechanism is one of several joint initiatives to further expedite execution of projects, by addressing procedural issues and suggesting the way forward.
The two sides reviewed the status of implementation of the decisions taken by the first High Level Project Monitoring Committee Meeting held on January 3, 2021.
Both sides noted with great satisfaction that significant headway has been made under the GoI LOC framework, said the press release.
The delegations discussed the entire spectrum of implementation issues during the meeting, including the need for standardization of the interpretation of GoI LOC processes and procedures by various Project Authorities of Bangladesh, expediting project preparation and Development Project Proposals (DPP), rationalizing bid qualification criteria, shortening and simplification of bill processing cycles, expediting award of finalized contracts, simplifying visa issuance procedures, etc.
The High Level Committee also identified the next steps to be taken by the Technical Committee, which would meet in due course to discuss issues at an operational level.