Japan reviews its funded projects tomorrow (Sunday) as some are not performing at the expected level, officials said on Friday.
Officials at the ministry of finance (MoF) said the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will sit with the project implementing agencies and the Economic Relations Division (ERD) in Dhaka.
The country's largest bilateral development partner will mainly sit with the government side to remove obstacles that stand in the way to implementing projects considered "challenging," said a senior official.
A total of five JICA-funded projects are categorised as the "worst-performing", according to the officials.
The execution of some of the projects has not started yet.
The local government division has failed to spend a single penny from the Tk 9.56 billion fund under the "Upazila governance and development project."
The project was approved in December 2015.
Another under-performing one is "Foreign direct investment promotion project" involving Tk 7.11 billion.
The project was approved in June 2016.
Besides, the authorities failed to start the execution of the Tk 4.63 billion-"Disaster risk management enhancement project," and the Tk 56.58 billion-"Hazrat Shahjalal airport expansion project."
Both projects were approved in June 2017.
Another challenging project is Tk 13.40 billion-"New Haripur power development project" of the Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh (EGCB), where only 8.0 per cent of the total aid has been spent, officials said.
The Haripur power plant project was taken up in 2007, officials said.
Meanwhile, some the JICA-funded big projects, including Matarbari power plant, MRT line-6 (metrorail) in Dhaka, and Western Bangladesh bridge improvement projects are running well.
"Since some of the JICA-funded projects have fallen behind the implementation targets, the Sunday's meeting will be useful for the implementing agencies," another official said.
The agencies could report to the JICA and the ERD about the problems and obstacles they face and discuss ways of removing those, he said.
Japan is the largest bilateral development partner of Bangladesh, which provides nearly US$ 400 million to $ 600 million in aid each year.
kabirhumayan10@gmail.com