The Prime Minister gave the directive while chairing a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) held today at the NEC Conference Room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today asked the authorities concerned to emphasize more on availing funding from the foreign sources alongside the local funding to ensure project financing.

She also noted that if the trend on timely implementation of foreign-aided projects increases, then disbursement of foreign loans would increase which would also put an impact on the foreign currency reserves.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Minister MA Mannan said that the premier asked the concerned authorities, including the Economic Relations Division, National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the Finance Division to ensure that the government uses more foreign funding and foreign loans to finance development projects which will also enhance the foreign currency reserve.

He also said that development partners like the World Bank, ADB and JICA are ready to extend more supports, including budget support to Bangladesh, but the government would take those as per its necessity and capacity.

State Minister for Planning Dr Shamsul Alam said that more than $50 billion of foreign assistance is in the pipeline.

The planning minister said that a total of 16 projects were approved today in the ECNEC meeting involving an overall estimated cost of Taka 24,362.14 crore. “Of the total project cost, Taka 12,873.11 crore will come from the government of Bangladesh exchequer, Taka 16.15 crore from the organization’s own fund and the rest Taka 11,472.88 crore from project assistance.