Although foreign aid flow to Bangladesh in the last fiscal year (2012-13) was around $3,140m lower than its commitments, the aid disbursement was higher totalling $2,786.13m in the last fiscal compared to $2,126.47m fetched in fiscal 2011-12.
The commitment for the FY 13 was much higher as it was $5,926.05m compared to $4,764.52m during the same period of previous year (FY 12), said an official at the Economic Relations Division (ERD).
During the FY 13, Bangladesh made a repayment of $1,121.38m, including $919.19m in principal amount while the rest of $202.19m as interests.
During the previous fiscal year, Bangladesh made a repayment of $966.19m including $759.11m as principal.
Of the disbursed amount of $2,786.13m for the FY 13, the ERD official said Bangladesh received $2134.3m in loans while it received $651.7m as grants.
Of the disbursed amount for this last fiscal year (FY 13), the IDA of the World Bank provided the highest amount of $ 901.9 million followed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) $670.4m, JICA $630.4m, UN system $203.9m, IDB $10.2m, EU $68.0m.
Talking to UNB, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Director General Mustafa K Mujeri said it is often seen in Bangladesh that there is a big gap between aid commitments and disbursements resulting in huge pipeline of foreign aids.
Dr Mujeri said that when donors made commitments then the receiving countries have to perform some key things like approval of projects and meeting conditions in a speedy way in order to quick release of the funds.
“If the agencies concerned of the government could take fast steps in releasing funds then the disbursement would go up, investment will increase and so as the GDP growth,” said the BIDS Director General adding that otherwise the development efforts would be hampered.
According to the recent flow of external resources since independence up to June 30, 2012, a total amount of about $56.5bn of foreign aid was disbursed to Bangladesh, of which $23.93bn was grant and $32.57bn in loan.
Of the total amount, $6.71bn came as food aid, $10.91bn as commodity aid, $35.96bn as project aid and $2.92bn as budget support. The per capita debt obligation of the country has risen from $6.59 in 1973-74 to $155.3 in 2011-12.
The flow of external resources also showed that of the total disbursed amount of foreign aid up to June 30, 2012, around 12% came as food aid, 19% as commodity aid, 64% as project aid and 5% as budget support.
The major multilateral development partner is IDA followed by ADB. On the other hand, Japan ranks as the largest bilateral development partner followed by the USA. Top 10 development partners according to contribution are IDA, ADB, Japan, the USA, UN System, the UK, Canada, Germany, the EU and the Netherlands.
