Japan, the country's biggest bilateral donor, has decided to closely monitor governance issues of Bangladesh to make sure its grants, loans and technical assistance effectively reach the poor, according to the foreign affairs ministry of Japan.

Such monitoring would include the tendering process under Japanese funds which are often plagued with corruption, bid manipulation, delays and awarding contracts to inappropriate bidders in vital sectors like power, transports and other infrastructure sectors.

"We request Bangladesh government to improve the environment for Japanese investors, the infrastructure, reform the country's regulations, improve its governance and security," an official dealing with Bangladesh at his Tokyo office told The Daily Star last week.

Unlike other donors, Japan never focused on internal issues like governance before. But it feels that this poor governance has become a major concern for both the donors and the people of Bangladesh.

"We are not aggressive (like the western donors). This is not intervention. This is to make our funding more effective because its Japanese taxpayers money," he said.

"We respect Bangladeshi ownership. We will not impose anything. But if there is lack of governance, it becomes very difficult for us to make the Japanese official development assistance (ODA) effective. Without commitment from Bangladesh government, we will not do anything. We hate to be misunderstood," he added.

"We are more concerned about effective ODA inputs. Since the nineties, Japan has reduced its total ODA (for all developing nations) by 33 percent. So the aid flow to Bangladesh is also being affected. We are facing pressures to improve the aid quality everywhere," another official explained why Japan tilted to governance issue.

Bangladeshi poor governance, corruption and internal political conflict had become a full fledged concern of all donors in the recent years while donors criticism on these matters have often triggered Bangladeshi ministers to make offensive comments against some unspecified donor countries.

While the Japanese foreign ministry officials did not relate its' new pro-governance aid policy with any particular experience in Bangladesh, some other officials however said the BNP government's cancellation of an agreement with Japan for a fertilizer factory in 2001which was signed during the Awami League governmentstand as an example of the country's weak political direction. Besides a number of Japan aided infrastructure projects witnessed long delays, corruption and tender manipulations.

Since Japan recognized Bangladesh in 1972, it pumped in US 5.6 billion dollars as loan, another 4.5 billion dollars as grant and 443 million dollars as technical assistance.

"Some parts of these contributions have been very successful. For instance the cyclone shelters, polio eradication programmes etc," the official said.

It has committed in March a fresh 100 million dollars (10 billion yen) loan for rural infrastructure building in the eastern part of Bangladesh. Japan is chalking out more loans and grants. But all of these new funding will be monitored for better output.

Japan is also drafting a new policy for aid for Bangladesh which will be finalized within a few months. This policy will heavily emphasise on Bangladeshi private sector development.

"Our top priority will still be government level aid for developing infrastructure, transport sector, power and agriculture society development," a foreign ministry official noted.

Human security issues like disaster management or countermeasures, health or sanitation and social development issues like basic education, health care, and environment will also get priority.

"We are currently helping the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (with the World Bank). We will monitor its implementation and try to fill the gaps of donors when needed," he added.

"Side by side with the Japanese ODA support, we will encourage Japanese investors to invest in Bangladesh. But they are also watching Bangladesh's situation themselves," he quipped.