WITH the general elections in Bangladesh slated for later this year, Bangladesh and India are in talks to fast-track implementation of the development projects under the second and third lines of credit totalling seven billion dollars.
Before the general elections in India due early next year, the two countries have turned their focus on projects related to power, connectivity and river dredging. Bangladesh has conveyed to India, through government as well as political channels, the development projects in their list of priority and diplomats of the two countries have stepped up their engagement for this.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale is reported to have called back India’s Ambassador to South Korea, Vikram Doraiswami, to lead the drive to complete as many projects as possible. It is hoped that the development partnership between New Delhi and Dhaka gets more visibility during the election year in Bangladesh.
An important reason for India’s push towards expediting the implementation of the projects is to address the growing perception about the slow pace in India’s delivery on commitments. India announced a two billion dollars line of credit during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka in June, 2015. Another soft loan of five billion dollars was granted when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited Delhi in April last year.
Bangladesh has been the biggest recipient of India’s developmental spending in the last seven years amounting to eight billion dollars. Sources said the actual disbursement of money under the lines of credit since 2015 stands at 300 million dollars.
It is sad that matters of perception are of more important than the need for actually realising the projects. We should not have had to wait for an election year to sway the perceptions of the public to spend more funds for development. No implementation is better than hasty implementation — especially in the crucial areas of power and connectivity.
There are many ways such funds can be spent properly — upgrading Chattogram port, dredging the canals of Dhaka to enable it to remain flood free, converting the Chattogram highway into more lanes. But if such things are done hastily to get publicity the work is sure to be slipshod and inferior. In a haste to complete projects, contractors will often not care about how quickly the work is finished, and thus leave gaping holes in the projects. This is a simple waste of public funds as the line of credit is essentially a loan facility.
Before the general elections in India due early next year, the two countries have turned their focus on projects related to power, connectivity and river dredging. Bangladesh has conveyed to India, through government as well as political channels, the development projects in their list of priority and diplomats of the two countries have stepped up their engagement for this.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale is reported to have called back India’s Ambassador to South Korea, Vikram Doraiswami, to lead the drive to complete as many projects as possible. It is hoped that the development partnership between New Delhi and Dhaka gets more visibility during the election year in Bangladesh.
An important reason for India’s push towards expediting the implementation of the projects is to address the growing perception about the slow pace in India’s delivery on commitments. India announced a two billion dollars line of credit during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka in June, 2015. Another soft loan of five billion dollars was granted when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited Delhi in April last year.
Bangladesh has been the biggest recipient of India’s developmental spending in the last seven years amounting to eight billion dollars. Sources said the actual disbursement of money under the lines of credit since 2015 stands at 300 million dollars.
It is sad that matters of perception are of more important than the need for actually realising the projects. We should not have had to wait for an election year to sway the perceptions of the public to spend more funds for development. No implementation is better than hasty implementation — especially in the crucial areas of power and connectivity.
There are many ways such funds can be spent properly — upgrading Chattogram port, dredging the canals of Dhaka to enable it to remain flood free, converting the Chattogram highway into more lanes. But if such things are done hastily to get publicity the work is sure to be slipshod and inferior. In a haste to complete projects, contractors will often not care about how quickly the work is finished, and thus leave gaping holes in the projects. This is a simple waste of public funds as the line of credit is essentially a loan facility.
