Muhith happy over foreign aid flow

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UNB, Dhaka :
Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Tuesday expressed satisfaction over the foreign aid flow to the country in the last fiscal year (FY 14) as it hit US$3.0 billion following a significant rise in disbursement by the World Bank.
“Aid commitment to the country has increased fantastically, but compared to that disbursement is slow to some extent ….Receiving $ 3 billion last year is a good performance although it would have been ideal had it reached $ 3.2 billion. I’m quite happy about it,” he told reporters at his ERD office.
Muhith said the country in the last fiscal year (FY 14) saw the highest disbursement of foreign aid in its history.
About the media reports on the pipeline foreign aid reaching over $19 billion, the Finance Minister said the foreign aid in the pipeline hit $ 18 billion on July 1, 2014 which was $ 16 billion on July 1, 2013.
He said, the ERD would issue a statement within this week on the latest disbursement of aid by the development partners as well as aid in the pipeline.
According to the ERD, the development partners had pledged $5.85 billion worth of loans and grants in FY 13.
In the last fiscal year (FY 14), the World Bank disbursed a record-high $950 million, including $140 million of the
and the Chinese government $466 million. Meanwhile, the aid disbursement by Bangladesh’s second-largest bilateral donor-the Asian Development Bank – lowered as the ADB gave $469 million worth of assistance in the last fiscal, lower $283 million than that in the previous FY2013.
Among other development partners, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) disbursed $337.54 million, UN systems $177.60 million, UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) $134.53 million, India $115.15 million and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) $67.43 million in assistance.
Out of the total $3.0 billion aid in the last fiscal, Bangladesh’s multilateral and bilateral development partners provided $2.27 billion in loans and $723.60 million in grants.
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