ADB says aid disbursement in Nepal poor

The Asian Development Bank has shown concern over low disbursement of its committed aid to Nepal. Only 66 per cent of its total pledged aid has been disbursed as of September 30.

ADB is one of the largest donors for Nepal following the April 25 earthquake last year and has an outstanding aid commitment of $1.73 billion for 33 investment projects, Xinhua news agency reported.

"But of the total outstanding aid, $1.15 billion has not been disbursed yet which is six per cent of Nepal GDP," Kenichi Yokoyama, country director of ADB for Nepal, said here on Thursday.

For this year, ADB has targeted to disburse $240 million but only $131 million has been released as of September end.

In Nepal, ministers are often blamed for transferring key project officials frequently for political and personal gains, which delays the implementation of development projects hitting public spending.

Yokoyama expressed concern that many committed actions in the previous tripartite meeting was not followed, which resulted in continued low disbursement of its aid.

Foreign aid contributes to a significant part of Nepal's capital budget.

--IANS

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