43pc higher goal set for foreign aid

The government has proposed to set the foreign assistance target at Tk 26,442 crore in the upcoming fiscal year to finance its development projects.
The proposed foreign assistance is 43 percent higher over FY 2011-12 despite under-utilisations of external funds over the years.
The government trimmed the target down to Tk 18,496 crore in the revised budget of 2011-12 after fixing it at Tk 23,623 crore.
According to former finance adviser Mirza AB Azizul Islam, the government would face problem in achieving higher foreign aid disbursement.
The foreign aid disbursement would be maximum $1.1 billion or so because it had been $835 million as of April.
It would not be possible to more than double it, he said.
Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh, said the government had been over-ambitious about drawing the foreign aid and it would be difficult due to the country's ongoing tension with the donors, especially the World Bank.