Unviable projects to be discarded
Bangladesh has convinced India to overhaul the operation of the line of credits to implement projects here for the best of interest of both the countries.
In this regard, technical committees were formed in Dhaka and in New Delhi on the concluding day of the two-day meeting between the two sides at the Economic Relations Division in the capital鈥檚 Agargaon area on Thursday.
Officials attending the meeting said the Indian side would be led by its high commissioner in Bangladesh and the Bangladesh side by an ERD official.
The decisions came against the backdrop of deals on only $2.8 billion out of proposed $7.3 billion loans under three LoC projects over the past 15 years since the introduction of the first LoC in 2010.
Of the settled amount, only $1.8 billion was released by the Export-Import Bank of India, established in 1982 to facilitate and promote India鈥檚 international trade.
ERD officials said that the proposed committees would negotiate between them to discard unviable projects which were still under negotiation.
The committees will also set up a new modus operandi of LoCs by emphasising the case-to-case approach instead of umbrella projects.
In that case, the overall loan linked to LoCs and the number of projects may be reduced, said the ERD officials.
This was the first meeting between the two sides after the July-August mass uprising that toppled the authoritarian regime of the Awami League, a long-time ally of the Indian government.
Ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India on August 5, 2024, complicating diplomatic relations between the two next door neighbours.
ERD additional secretary Mirana Mahrukh who led the local side termed the review meeting successful.
Both the sides discussed the outstanding issues warmly and with a new spirit, said the ERD additional secretary, adding that consents would be sought from the higher authorities on the agreed issues.
On Wednesday, finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed said that they would not suspend any project being implemented with the LoCs from India. He, however, said that some LoC projects stuck in the implementation rate of zero to one would be reviewed.
At least 40 projects have been planned for implementation under the LoCs.
Of them, 14 were completed, 18 are being implemented and the rest eight are at the planning stage.聽聽聽聽
It has been reported that conditions like limited tendering for selecting Indian contractors only and mandatory outsourcing of 75 per cent products from India caused delay in the implementation of many projects.
Bangladesh, the largest development partner under India鈥檚 LoC programme, received $862 million under the first LoC to implement 15 projects. The second LoC was of $2 billion and the third of $4.5 billion.
