Foreign aid worth $792 million was disbursed in the FY 2003-04, according to the primary figures of the Economic Relations Division (ERD). The development partners released $1.58 billion in the previous fiscal year.

Last fiscal year saw all forms of aids decline, with project aid alone plunging about 44 percent to $770 million against $1.36 billion in the previous year. Bangladesh received $11 million in commodity aid and $10 million in food aid in the last financial year. The aids in the FY 2002-03 totalled $175 million and $48 million.

Officials at the ERD put down the dip in foreign aid to more than one reason.

They pointed out that Bangladesh received $308 million in Development Support Credit from the World Bank (WB) in the FY 2002-03 but no such fund went to the aid basket in the FY 2003-04. The WB however has approved $200 million in Development Support Credit 2 in the current fiscal year.

The officials also blamed it on poor implementation of donor-aided projects because of stringent conditions the donors had tagged to the government's getting the aid.

Besides, poor aid utilisation capacity of the government agencies also accounted for the aid plunge.

Officials at the planning ministry, however, said the new public procurement guidelines also put brakes on project implementation, leaving millions of dollars of aid in the pipeline. $6.2 billion aid was in the pipeline in the last fiscal year and the ERD forecasts more than $8 billion in aids would be in the pipeline this fiscal year.

The FDI flow, meanwhile, is projected to rise to $385 million in the FY 2003-04, an increase by 2.39 percent from $376 million in the previous fiscal year, according to a new survey by the Bangladesh Bank (BB).

The central bank adopted a new measurement of FDI flow from this fiscal year and the data collected include both flows on a gross basis and stocks. The BB will use the new methodology in calculating the balance of payments (BoP) from now on and the International Monetary Fund has recognised it, as it is consistent with international practice, according to the officials at the BB.

The latest quarterly of the BB published the FDI survey finds on the basis of the new methodology this month.

The net FDI flow stood at $553 million in the FY01, $380 million in the FY02 and $376 in the FY03.