Kathmandu, December 15:

Paolo Spantigati, officer-in-Charge of Asian Development Bank (ADB), Nepal Resident Mission in an end-of-year press conference today disclosed that further improvements on project implementation are needed, with $540 million in assistance still to be disbursed under ongoing ADB-financed projects.

Portfolio performance improved significantly this year after performing weakly for four consecutive years, said Paolo Spantigati giving aid details to journalists today.

He said that the 2006 disbursement ratio is 18 per cent, while it was 4.4 per cent in 2004 and 7.7 per cent in 2005. He also highlighted that there was a sharp improvement in the net resource transfer. “From negative resource transfer to four years, the net resource transfer was positive in 2005 by $2.9 million.

ADB approved four investment projects in 2006 that include roads connectivity sector I project ($55 million grant), rural finance sector development cluster programme I ($56 million loan; $9 million grant), commercial agriculture development ($18 million grant), education sector cluster programme (sub-programme I 30 million loan, $2million grant), according to an ADB report.

Altogether 12 TAs amounting to $5.5 million have been approved in 2006 and another TA of $300,000 is likely to be approved by end of this year, says Paolo.