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Aziz defends foreign aid

Star Business Report
Finance Adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam yesterday defended the need for foreign aid saying it helps the government carry out development activities.
"In broader terms, the inflow of aid has considerably declined. But we will not be able to meet all the needs on our own. Aid helps the govern-ment bear development spending," he said.
Foreign aid also helps the government halt the depreciation of the taka against the dollar, which is all the more necessary as Bangladesh is an import-dependent country, he said.
“We must accept the reality. In the current situation we .cannot afford to do away with aid,” Aziz said.
The adviser made the remark at a dialogue on "Accra Conference on Aid Effectiveness: Perspectives Bangladesh" organised by private research organisation
Centre for Policy Dialogue.
CPD Chairperson Rehman Sobhan chaired the programme, also attended by donors' representatives, economists, senior government officials and NGO workers.
Quazi Meshbahuddin Ahmed, managing director of the umbrella body for microfinance PKSF (Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation), and Mustafa K Mujeri chief economist of Bangladesh Bank, were lead discussants. World Bank Country Director Xian Zhu also spoke.
The CPD arranged the discussion ahead of the Third High Level Forum in Accra on Aid Effectiveness to review and assess progress in the implementation of the Paris Declaration adopted in 2005.
Donors, recipient countries and civil society organisations are expected to attend the three-day conference beginning on September 2.
According to the CPD, the flow of foreign aid or official development assistance (ODA)
was on the decline. ODA stood at 2.4 percent of Bangladesh's GDP in fiscal 2006-07 from 2.9 percent of GDP in fiscal 2000-2001.
Conditions tagged by donors and dictation in setting policy agendas limit the country's ownership in projects, speakers said. They raised concerns that such conditionality undermines the democratic process.
But donor representatives here said conditions had been imposed because they had to guarantee their taxpayers the right to know.
CPD Chairman Rehman Sobhan said the only agent, which can make effective use of aid, is the recipient country.
Donors and government may know how the aid was effectively used, but the people -- die final recipient -- may sull remain in the dark, he said.
The CPD chairman suggested that donors make the results of the projects public and bring transparency to their transactions.