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Dhaka got a bad name despite good records

Saifur laments at Washington meet

UNB, Dhaka
Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman highlighted at a Washington meet Bangladesh's good record in economic growth, poverty reduction and human development, brushing aside adverse criticisms by some quarters against the country.
He questioned how these achievements were possible even with dwindling external aid and after regular servicing of all foreign debts if there have been so many
things gone wrong in thecountiy.
The minister lamented that despite such good performances, some organisations labelled Bangladesh as 'most corrupt coun-tiy’.
Delivering the keynote speech at an international roundtable on "Aid Effectiveness" in the US capital on Friday, he pointed out that these achievements have been recognised worldwide, including by development partnersof the country.
Some 300 participants represent-
ing various countries, the media, NGOs, civil-society groups and officials from the World Bank and the IMF attended the roundtable organised by the two Bretton Woods institutions. Sebastian Mallaby, member of the editorial board of the Washington Post moderated the session.
"Bangladesh has its own commitment and programme to further improve governance," Saifur told his audience, adding that no amount of
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resource, either foreign ordomestic, can help achieve MDGs without improvement in governance and institutions in any country.
He called upon both the donors and the recipients to carry out their respective obligations to improve effectiveness of aid. "Aid should go where it is needed and who can makejustuseofit.”
The finance ministerpointed out that appropriate use of aid would always be a problem for countries with weak institutions and bad governance.
"Lack of absorptive capacity also will make aid counterproductive," he said, adding that aid should be performance and result-based.
He suggested that both the donors and the recipients have a joint responsibility to improve aid effectiveness.
Saifur said the present problem of debt reliefordebt cancellation for many countries in Africa and Latin America arose only because of ineffective use of aid in these countries. He claimed the scenario in Asia, including Bangladesh, to be different.
"Bangladesh has a good track record of utilisation of aid and it is gradually reducing dependence on foreign aid," he told the meeting.
The minister apprised the participants that the current net aid flow into Bangladesh constitutes about 2 K’ of its GDR which he termed ignificant as compared to the aiddependence of so-called highly indebted poor countries in Africa and Latin America.
He emphasised the importance of real country ownership of the development programmes and mentioned that still, in many cases,
development policies and conditions were thrust upon the recipients.
Sometimes 'one size fits to all' kind of policies are imposed without understanding the sociopolitical realities of the countries, Saifur told the discussion meeting sponsored by the multilateral donor agencies, in unsparing criticism of their aid policies and prescriptions.
"There's no single answer to many development issues," Saifur said and categorically mentioned that "rigidity of conditionalities, cross-conditionalities by different donors and imposition of political conditionalities in policy matters tremendously affect aid effectiveness".
Political conditions by some development partners also affect aid- effectiveness. "Every country should be given opportunities to build up broad-based support for reforms," he said, adding that unpredictability in aid flow is another roadblock for effective use of foreign aid and it creates unanticipated problems in macroeconomic management in many countries.
Lack of harmonised procedures amongst donors and between the donors and recipient countries is also hindering effective utilisation ofaid.
Earlier in the day. Wb rid Bank Vice-President for South Asia region Praful C Patel, along with a team of his sector directors, met the finance minister to discuss the bank's assistance portfolio for Bangladesh.
Major issues covered were PRSR proposed power-sector investment programme, and country assistance strategy (GXS) which are expected to be approved by December.