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Ecnec approves Tk 1,41,251 crore dev projects last year


Published : 03 Jan 2022 10:15 PM

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved a total of 120 development projects worth Tk 1,41,251.38 crore in the last year.

Out of the total cost of projects, Tk 80,050.20 crore will be spent from government funds. So, more than 56 percent of the projects approved last year have been funded by the government. 

Apart from this, Tk 59,736.91 crore has been taken from foreign loans and Tk 1,464.28 crore has been taken from the autonomous agencies' own funds.

The first ECNEC meeting of last year was held on 5 January. The meeting approved development projects worth Tk 9,589.23 crore. That was the only ECNEC meeting in January.

On the other hand, the last Ecnec meeting on December 7 approved projects worth Tk 7,447 crore.

A planning official said “The ECNEC is supposed to meet 36 times a year, though at least three times a month in normal times. Only 15 ECNEC meetings have been held in 2021 due to corona pandemic,” he added.

“Despite the low approval of the project, the implementation of the project has gained some momentum in the outgoing year,” he mentioned. 

“Gradually the project implementation activities have started to overcome the stress,” he further said.

Former IMED secretary and current planning secretary Pradeep Ranjan Chakraborty said that the corona epidemic has had a negative impact on the country's development activities. 

Due to this, much less important expenditure of development projects was cut due to various reasons including a reduction in revenue collection. 

However, the current situation is improving. The pace of implementation has increased in other projects including mega projects. Corona's loss is being compensated.

According to the progress report of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED), in the first four months of the current fiscal year, from July to October 2021, the Annual Development Program (ADP) has been implemented at 13.06 percent. 

At the same time last year, the rate was 12.79 percent. Hence, the implementation of ADP has increased comparatively.

On the other hand, the ministries and departments were able to spend Tk 30,919 crore in July-October.

In the last four months of the last fiscal year, this figure was Tk 27,453 crore. A total of Tk 2,36,793 crore ADP is being implemented in the current fiscal year.

The departments that are ahead in the implementation of ADP

In the last four months, the ADP has been led by the Department of Local Government, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Ministry of Agriculture, Disaster Management and Relief, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock and Food. 

Besides, the Department of Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs, Cabinet Division, Economic Relations Division (ERD), Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment and the Department of Technical and Madrasa Education are also in the forefront of implementing the ADP.

The Bangladesh Public Service Commission (BPSC), the Department of Law and Justice, the Department of Healthcare, the Department of Statistics and Information Management, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Commerce and the Department of Security and Services have lagged behind in implementing the ADP in the last four months.

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