Foreign loans for the social safety net projects are likely to fall in the new fiscal year as the lenders are showing more interest in the infrastructure and transport sector deals.
The Economic Relations Division officials said they were expecting to strike deals worth only US$ 71.4 million with the lenders on the social protection projects in the coming fiscal year.
The amount of loan was US$ 537.85 million for 14 projects that were signed between the government and the lenders—the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Japan International Agency for Cooperation to improve safety net programme for the poverty-stricken people.
The donor agencies are also showing less interest in the power and energy sector projects after signing deals worth US$ 1,397 million in the outgoing fiscal year. The loan amount is likely to drop to less than US$ 1000 million in the same sector in the new fiscal year.
The ERD officials said they were expecting to make up the sharp fall in foreign loans on social protection projects by striking deals in the infrastructure and transport related projects.
According to an estimate, the ERD is expecting to sign deals worth US$ 1,087 million to carry out infrastructure and transport related projects. In the outgoing fiscal year, the amount of loans to same sector was almost half to US$ 588 million.
The ERD also estimated that loan amount for the education and health sector projects was likely to be four-time higher to US$ 410 million in the new fiscal year. It calculated that deals worth US$ 2564.7 million are likely to be signed in the new fiscal year.
However, ERD has lowered the availability of foreign loans by US$ 420 million in the outgoing fiscal year because of slow utilisation of project aids.
It revised the initial projection of US$ 3,370 million to US$ 2,950 million after the ministries and divisions could not improve implementation rate of projects funded by the lenders.
Slow implementation rate of the foreign-funded projects has become a worry for the government. Early this year, the ministries and divisions were asked to speed up the implementation rate of the lender-driven projects.
Besides, the government has formed the Fast Track Project Monitoring Committee with the aim to monitor the implementation of priority projects. Six projects were identified as the fast track projects.
They are: Padma Multipurpose Bridge, Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Rampal Coal-Fired Thermal Power Plant, Dhaka Mass Rapid Transit Development project (metro rail project), Sonadia Deep Seaport in Cox’s Bazar and Liquefied Natural Gas Terminal Construction project.
-With New Age input
