Foreign aid commitments continued to fall, as it was down 35% in the first half of the current fiscal year due to persisting “go slow” policy adopted by some key development partners, officials said.

According to the Economic Relations Division (ERD) data released yesterday, the foreign assistance commitment during Jul-December period of the current financial year stood at $1bn in loan and grants compared to $1.54bn in the same period a year earlier.

During the period, the aid disbursement, however, grew 15% to $1.5bn from $1.31bn in the corresponding period of last fiscal year.

Development experts said sluggish project implementation process has held back aid commitment. Improved efficiency is crucial to boost foreign aid confirmation, they said.

Of the total commitments during the period, $812m came in the form of loans and $191.3m in grants, and of the $1bn aid disbursement, the government has received $1.28bn in loans and $222.22m in grants.

Among the development partners, the World Bank disbursed $339.9m, the Asian Development Bank $496.81m, Japan $128.41m, China $100.37m, Islamic Development Bank $91.41m and India $8.66m.

Meanwhile, the government during the period paid back $632.9m, including $538.45m as principal amount and $94.45m as interest, to the development partners against the outstanding loans.

In the same period last fiscal year, it had paid back debts of $630.74m, including $536.58m as principal amount and $94.16m as interests, to the foreign lenders.

“Negotiations for some pipeline projects were delayed after a new government assuming office in January, 2014. So, the aid commitment has also been affected. I hope the situation will be changed soon,” said a senior ERD official.

Besides, the political turmoil on the issue of national election has also affected the aid commitment to Bangladesh, he added.

 Amid slower pace of implementation and delay in aid finalisation, the World Bank is going to review 15 development projects in Bangladesh under its funding worth $3.16bn.

The WB would sit with the government agencies on Thursday to review the nine ongoing projects and six other pipeline projects that the Bank has already identified as the poor-progressing ones.

The government received a record $3bn worth of foreign aid in the last fiscal year following a significant rise in disbursement by the World Bank and China.

However, officials expected the foreign aid commitment and disbursement might pick up in the second half of this fiscal, as some big loans of the World Bank and a couple of other donors are in the pipeline for signing soon.