MORE than a year after the Chinese president’s historic Dhaka visit, some of Bangladesh’s key development projects have finally gained momentum. Dhaka and Beijing have reached the final stage of signing the loan agreements on eight projects, including the crucial Padma Bridge Rail Link. China would provide Bangladesh with over $9.45 billion in credit for the 12 projects. Undeniably, once the projects are completed the list of benefits is long , but the track record of undertaking and completing our mega projects have often been riddled with corruption , nepotism , misuse of funds , bureaucratic red tapes, deliberate delays and many other vices. On top of it- Most of our mega projects in question made some advancement but could not be completed within the tenure of the present government. With the change of the government, these projects might either face death or get wrongfully credited as the brainchild of the next government, as seen in the past.
We have repeatedly stressed to make the project authorities concerned to make the sequential processes transparent, hold officials accountable for their actions. But similar to most of our calls, this too went in vain. However, with barely a year left in power while noting down our points seriously, the government must at least begin the projects in a fair manner. We are clear about the long list of obstacles that make handling of the mega projects problematic – the ruling party will just have to ensure to address those.
We feel, the ruling party should have guaranteed good governance first – which is missing almost on all sectors. Instead of doing that, it has made more businesses out of the mega projects to favour a handful party loyalist and dubious businessmen. Also the businesses made out in the name of undertaking the mega-projects have in no way contributed to make governance system more accountable and transparent.
The bottom-line is, we don’t want to see excessive media coverage of these China funded projects so to display ostentatious pre-election phony promises and hope. They must be handled with a sharp sense of responsibility, accountability and transparency.
We have repeatedly stressed to make the project authorities concerned to make the sequential processes transparent, hold officials accountable for their actions. But similar to most of our calls, this too went in vain. However, with barely a year left in power while noting down our points seriously, the government must at least begin the projects in a fair manner. We are clear about the long list of obstacles that make handling of the mega projects problematic – the ruling party will just have to ensure to address those.
We feel, the ruling party should have guaranteed good governance first – which is missing almost on all sectors. Instead of doing that, it has made more businesses out of the mega projects to favour a handful party loyalist and dubious businessmen. Also the businesses made out in the name of undertaking the mega-projects have in no way contributed to make governance system more accountable and transparent.
The bottom-line is, we don’t want to see excessive media coverage of these China funded projects so to display ostentatious pre-election phony promises and hope. They must be handled with a sharp sense of responsibility, accountability and transparency.
