Ecnec okays 11 projects worth Tk 4547 crore

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) yesterday approved 11 projects, including the Tk 681-crore one on higher education quality enhancement providing research funds to the public and private universities who reportedly remained high and dry in this important sector.
The total cost of the 11 projects is Tk 4547 crore with Tk 3518 crore foreign aid from IDA, ADB, SDC EC, WB and IDAS.
Presided over by Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, yesterday's ECNEC meeting was attended by the advisers, special assistants to the chief adviser, secretaries and high officials of different ministries.
The higher education quality enhancement project funded by the World Bank got the go from the ECNEC with loan negotiations remaining incomplete, officials said.
“The negotiation is still going on,” said a Planning Commission high official.
He said the Planning Commission had opposed the World Bank project proposal, as it did not match the needs of the country.
As per the project document, the government would provide research funds to the 31 public universities if their research proposals maintain a quality while the number of the private universities is almost double.
“The contribution of the universities in the research arena is not significant. Under this project the government will fund the research of the universities,” Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam told reporters after the ECNEC meeting at the Planning Commission office.
Of the Tk 681-crore allocation, a sum of Tk 598 crore would be funded by the World Bank for the project to run from 2009 to 2013.
For the funds of this project the research proposals would have to pass from the evaluation committee comprising experts from different sectors.
The government in the past week formed a seven-member loan negotiation team, headed by Economic Relations Division's Additional Secretary M Mosharraf Hossain. Representatives of the ministries of finance, education and law and the University Grants Commission are also on the committee.
Earlier, the commission had opposed the project, as it would not be wise for the government to take loans from the World Bank and give the money in grants to private universities, which collect a huge sum in fees from students.
The commission also said colleges offering higher education under the National University were facing serious problems in maintaining education quality while public universities and such colleges cater the need for higher education for more than 90 per cent of the students pursuing higher studies.
The project will have four components - promoting academic innovations, building institutional capacity, raising connectivity capacity of the higher education sector and project management.
The academic-innovation component, involving Tk 350 crore or $50 million, is focused on private universities.