NEC okays Tk 97,000cr ADP for Bangladesh

The National Economic Council (NEC) of Bangladesh on Thursday approved the Annual Development Program (ADP) with the original outlay of Taka 97,000 crore for the financial year 2015-16 aiming at ensuring a balanced development and high growth of Bangladesh. In the new ADP, communication, power, physical infrastructure and education sectors have been prioritized to boost the growth envisaged by the government.
NEC Chairperson and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting held at the NEC conference room in the capital city’s Sher-e-Banglanagar area.
Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, after the meeting, briefed newsmen that initially ADP of Taka 92,500 crore was placed before the NEC meeting for its consideration.
But, following the increased demands from various ministries and divisions, Kamal said, the Prime Minister raised the original ADP allocation by another Taka 4,500 crore that inflated the ADP size to Taka 97,000 crore.
However, the ADP size would be Taka 100,997 crore if the fund of the autonomous organizations or corporations of Taka 3,997 crore is calculated in combine, added the planning minister.
“The increased allocation of Taka 4,500 crore would be later distributed among the concerned ministries and divisions,” said Kamal.
The planning minister said if there are further demands from the ministry, the government would try to meet those. “There should be no mismatch between demand and supply.”
State Minister for Finance and Planning M A Mannan was present at the briefing.
Out of the approved ADP allocation, Taka 62,500 crore will come from the local sources while Taka 34,500 from project assistance.
The new ADP for FY16 is around Taka 16,686 crore higher than the original ADP size of Taka 80,314.52 crore in the FY15 and also Taka 22,500 crore higher than the revised ADP allocation of Taka 75,000 crore in FY15.
In the ADP, projects under 17 main sectors have been allocated Taka 89,760 crore or 97.04 per cent while Taka 2739 crore or 2.96 per cent has been given to 10 development assistance sectors.
The planning ministry officials said the transport sector got the highest allocation in the new ADP allocation followed by the power sector, physical planning, water supply and housing sector, education and religious sector, health, nutrition, population and social welfare sector.
The fresh ADP for the next fiscal year would have some 1123 projects including 854 investment projects, 132 technical assistance projects, 12 projects from the Japan Debt Cancellation Fund (JDCF) and 125 projects from the autonomous bodies and corporations.
The new ADP also kept some 857 unapproved projects without allocation on the green page of the ADP while some 368 unapproved new projects have been kept subject to the availability of fund from project assistance.
Besides, some 40 projects would be kept for implementation under the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) initiative.
Some 324 projects have been kept for completion in the next fiscal year’s ADP including 281 investment projects, 41 technical assistance projects and two from the JDCF.
The new ADP also incorporated some 209 projects which could not be completed by this fiscal year or June 2015.
The planning minister said it was a historical moment for the country since the ADP allocation for the first time crossed Taka one lakh crore mark.
“It was the achievement of the government since the ADP size increased by nearly four times during the tenure of the present AL government,” he added.
Expressing high hope to implement the big ADP, Kamal said the government would address the missing links from the very first day of the next fiscal year.
The planning minister vowed to control misuse in project implementation, adding, “We’ll control misuse, how we would do that you’ll see later…we’ll work with honesty. Planning Ministry would be the mixture of accountability and honesty.”
Ministers and state ministers attended the meeting while Planning Commission members and other secretaries were present.

–Our Monitor

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