Release of project aid by development partners witnessed a modest gain in the last fiscal year on the back of a better foreign fund utilisation by government implementing agencies despite a political deadlock. Development partners disbursed a total of $3,008.95 million of funds in the just-concluded FY15, up from $3,008.68 million funds released during previous fiscal, latest data released by Economic Relations Division (ERD) on Sunday suggests. Although months-long violent political violence early in 2015 seriously dented development activities, implementing agencies managed to achieve three-year high implementation performance of 91 percent in project aid segment, while local resource utilization dropped to three-year low level. Fund commitments from the development partners, on the other hand, slipped to $5,210.97 million in the last fiscal, including $4,755.19 million of loans and $455.77 million of grants, down from the previous fiscal’s $5,545.11 million commitments comprising $5,344.80 million loans and $510.31 million grants. ERD officials said low fund commitments basically resulted due to slow implementation status of some big foreign-funded projects undertaken by the government eying to give a big push for infrastructure development. Last fiscal’s PA disbursement was also higher both in terms of loans and grants compared to those made in the 2013-14 fiscal. Out of last fiscal’s total disbursed amount, loans were $2,443.64 million and grants $565.31 million, which were up from $2,285.06 million of loans and $423.62 of grants released in the previous fiscal, the ERD data said. Meanwhile, the government managed to repay $1,105.90 million in the last fiscal year including $223.48 million as principal amount and $182.43 million as interests, downsizing the actual disbursement figures below $2 billion mark. IDA, the World Bank’s soft loan window, became top on the list of PA disbursement with releasing $882.12 million loans and $131.27 million grants, followed by ADB releasing $705.70 million credit and $5.89 million grants, and Jica $282.34 million loans and $11.78 million grants. Also, China released $148.03 million loans, Islamic Development Bank $127.21 million loans, and India $43.88 million loans and $50 million of grants.
