Government to reactivate some viable stalled foreign funded projects
The Government is taking proactive measures to reactivate some of the viable 148 stalled foreign funded projects that can be properly implemented to achieve the desired results, the Finance Ministry’s Project Management and Monitoring Department said.
The Sectorial Oversight Committee (SOC) on National Economic and Physical Plans has instructed the department to submit a progress report without delay as it was transpired that only 31 out of 179 foreign investment projects are in progress at present.
A sum of approximately Rs. 2.6 trillion had been received for these foreign investment projects from foreign-funded institutions, and the SOC emphasised that it is very regrettable that the foreign loans and grants obtained for such projects were not carried out suitably.
The SOC pointed out that the expected objectives are not being achieved through these projects owing to weakness of the relevant ministries and their operating institutions as well as the project monitoring units.
Accordingly, the committee instructed the officials present to submit a report in this regard within one month.
The government has appointed a high official committee comprising senior officers and chaired by the Secretary to the Prime Minister to expedite large-scale foreign-funded projects as the implementation of these projects halted in the second quarter of the year.
This committee is to obtain the assistance of relevant parties to ensure the smooth functioning of these projects as well as to take action to solve the existing issues and achieve the expected targets from those projects.
According to the report prepared by the Department of Project Management and Supervision, the accumulated physical progress of large-scale (above Rs.1 billion) projects were stalled due to import restrictions, shortage of raw materials, fuel crisis, power cuts, inflation coupled with contract management issues.
At the end of the second quarter, 260 large-scale development projects with a total investment of Rs.5.8 trillion were in various stages of implementation.
Out of them, 125 projects are financed by foreign financing sources while their project completion time extends up to year 2030.
Some of the bilateral project funding was also suspended following the government’s announcement on pre-emptive default on external debt in mid-April 2022.
According to finance ministry data, as of September 30, 2023, the total undisbursed balance of foreign financing available from already committed loans that are to be utilised in the next 3 – 5 years was US$6.3 billion.
The major portion of the balance is to be disbursed from the projects committed with China, and others are from the World Bank, Japan, India and the Asian Development Bank.
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