ZOOMBANGLA DESK: The second meeting of the High-Level Project Monitoring Committee to review projects under the India-Bangladesh Governmental Lines of Credit (LOC) was held on Sunday.

This bilateral mechanism is one of several joint initiatives to further expedite the execution of projects, by addressing procedural issues and suggesting the way forward.

It was co-chaired by High Commissioner of India Vikram Doraiswami and Secretary of Economic Relations Division (ERD) of Ministry of Finance Fatima Yasmin, said a press release.

Delegates included officials of Economic Relations Division, Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Board of Revenue, Finance Division and Ministry of Home Affairs on the Bangladesh side and High Commission of India and Exim Bank of India.

The two sides reviewed the status of implementation of the decisions taken by the 1st High-Level Project Monitoring Committee Meeting held on January 3, 2021.

It was noted with great satisfaction that the Bangladesh-India development partnership has grown significantly in recent years.

Bangladesh is India’s largest development partner under its Line of Credit programme with total commitment under LOCs being US$7.862 billion.

Both the sides revealed that significant headway has been made under the GoI LOC framework and that out of approximately US$2 billion contracted so far, the milestone of US$1 billion in disbursements is about to be reached within days.

It was also said that with a concerted effort from both the sides, the pace of disbursements has nearly doubled in one year as US$238.68 million has been disbursed in this time, despite the serious challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Participants discussed the entire spectrum of implementation issues during the meeting, including the need for standardization of the interpretation of GoI LOC processes and procedures by various Project Authorities of Bangladesh, expediting project preparation and Development Project Proposals (DPP),

Rationalizing bid qualification criteria, shortening and simplification of bill processing cycles, expediting award of finalized contracts, simplifying visa issuance procedures etc.

The High-Level Committee also identified the next steps to be taken by the Technical Committee, which would meet in due course to discuss issues at an operational level. (BSS)