The Asian Development Bank today expressed concern over the "slow implementation" of projects funded by it in Nepal and pointed out challenges related to environment, forest clearance and land acquisition faced by it in smooth execution of these plans.
ADB Country Director to Nepal Kenichi Yokoyama today held Tripartite Portfolio Review Meeting here to check development of these projects.
Key challenges identified by the ADB impacting implementation of development projects include weak project management capacity of executing and implementing agencies, delay in procurement and disbursement, high risk in procurement and contract administration, poor contractor and consultant performance and weak inter-agency coordination.
Yokoyama expressed concern over the "slow implementation" of the development projects.
During the review meeting, ADB pointed out the challenges related to environment and forest clearance, land acquisition, aggregates and coordination with other utilities.
The meeting also recommended various action plans to address these challenges.
The last year's review meeting had formulated 22 action plans for the expeditious implementation of four projects in the energy sector of which only 11 were implemented, Yokoyama pointed out.
Similarly, these projects missed seven targets and four action plans were not complied to, he added.
He also expressed concerns over the halt of the Tribhuvan International Airport expansion project due to lack of raw materials and said that the project management was also weak.
During the meeting, officials of the concerned Nepalese authorities admitted that the pace of implementation of the development projects could not speed up due to international and external reasons emphasising on the need for inter-ministry coordination and cooperation in carrying out the projects.
ADB is one of the major development partners of Nepal.
