Bangladesh should concentrate on utilising the currently available foreign aid more ef fecuvely and efficiently as increased level of future assistance appears to be bleak be cause of resource constraints in donor cdbntries. cautioned representatives of a group of important bilateral donors yesterday

In a meeting, entitled "Development cooperation be tween Bangladesh and bilateral donors" with the Economic Reporters Forum at the National Press Club, the repre senta fives from Canada. Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America also spoke of the negative impact the prevailing political situa lion in the country may have on the economy

The donor representatives ■referred to the existing bottlenecks In project implements tlon and also acknowledged that their governments were Increasingly placing emphasis on channeling development assistance through the non government organisations (NGOsI .

They, however, lauded the

achievements made by Bangladesh over the years in increasing food production, reducing the population growth rate and bringing about macro-economic stability

"Bangladesh has been very successful In spite of many difficulties." said Richard M Brown, director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) In Dhaka.

John Deyell, the Canadian International Development Agency (C1DA) representative, also agreed. "The achievements of Bangladesh are poorly understood elsewhere. The improved economic condition has allowed the government to go from a crisis management mode to one of growth

The representative of the British Overseas Development Agency (ODA). Stephen Chard, said that there have been enormous' development, particularly in the Infrastructural field, and that Increased Internal resource mobilisation Is decreasing the country's de pendence on foreign aid.

The minister at the Japanese embassy. Yoshihisa Kur oda. also agreed that Bang! adesh has made considerable’ achievements In development. 'But I would like to stress here that 20 years have passed since Bangladesh's liberation. It Is a long lime. Please keep up the self-help efforts, then we can help you more " On the prevailing political situation.

•he said quite frankly we do not like hartal" while pointing

out that even the powerful Japanese business delegation, the Kiedanran mission, had to be confined to their hotel during their visit in June last.

"I don't need to say anything more, you can imagine what kind of impression they had." Kuroda added while noting the detrimental effect political disturbances would have in attracting foreign inves.-ments.

Stephen Chard also noted that the political situation may also have an impact on the donor countries as they would like to ensure that the investment environment is right and that the donors would also be concerned with good governance under a democratic set up.

"I think we all realise that the political situation has been distracting from the economic objectives.'' observed Brown of USAID. The ODA representative added. "1 think it would be extremely unfortunate for Bangladesh if politics is allowed to ruin the economy."

The Japanese diplomat was also critical of the tendency to politicise everything. You are very fond of politicising anything." he said while summing up his impressions about Bangladesh during his 16-month stay here. ”1 am afraid you could also politicise Our economic assistance to your country."

All donor representatives agreed that the implementation of aided projects needs to be improved for a more effective and efficient use of development assistance.

The Japanese diplomat identified several problems relating to implementation of projects, including lengthy bureaucratic procedures, problems in land acquisition and poor maintenance of completed projects.

The ODA representative also pointed out the difficulty in getting projects approved due to the excessively centralised bureaucracy.

The fundamental point for public sector reform in Bangladesh la to bring about delegation of authority and to hold people accountable, he observed.

Brown of USAID noted that the issue of public administration and governance was a major issue raised at the Paris aid club meeting for Bangladesh in April last. However, he noted that in a new democracy there is usually a period of adjust-

ment for the public administration to work with thp political leadership.

The CIDA representative, however, pointed out that the implementation problem may also be symptomatic of the changing relationship between the donors and recipients and also because of the government's increased capacity to take up projects.

Deyell acknowledged that priority allocations of resource is taking place presently. "But there is a need to begin the planning process between the donor and the recipient countries at the highest level."

The donor representatives at the meeting all agreed that increasing amount of development assistance is being diverted through NGOs. "We indeed are encouraged to work with the NGOs because of the increased community participation," pointed out the USAID director.

They said that they are increasingly emphasising on human resource development in their bilateral aid rather 'than on infrastructural projects.

The ODA representative added: 'The NGOs are actually doing something better \ than the government. They can ' make a lot of contribution."

Earlier, A H M Moazzem Hossain, the editor of the Financial Express and president of the forum, noted the poor utilisation of aid in the pipeline because of poor disbursement, the conflicting donor advice In some instances and also talked about the need for mutual appreciation of the need of the recipient country and the objectives of the donor country.

Later, Shamsul Huq Zahid of The Bangladesh Times, the secretary general of the forum, thanked the guests for attending the meeting.