Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Apr 27, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Apr 27, 2005 |
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Industry & Economy
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Infrastructure USAID to help develop pool finance structure in Bengal Our Bureau
Kolkata , April 26 THE United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Government of West Bengal today decided to work for development of a "pool finance" structure for urban infrastructure capacity building. USAID has already helped in the successful implementation of a pool finance structure in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Addressing a press conference in West Bengal in connection with the launch of the third phase of the Indo-USAID Financial Institutions Reform and Expansion (FIRE-D) programme, the State Minister for Urban Development and Municipal Affairs, Mr Asok Bhattacharya, said the project was still in an early stage. "We have just launched the programme and will define the strategies hereafter." Meanwhile, USAID and the West Bengal Government will jointly promote introduction of an "accrual-based" double entry accounting system in the State municipalities, replacing the existing "single entry" accounting method. Mr Bhattacharya said that reforms were overdue in the State municipalities. "DFID is already working with us for urban infrastructure financing and capacity building in 40 municipalities. We expect USAID to help us to carry out similar exercises in the remaining 86 municipalities", he said, adding that, for the time being, USAID had decided to launch two pilot projects in the Asansol and Siliguri municipalities. The State Government has sought special support from USAID in initiating a solid waste management mission in West Bengal. Elaborating on the scope of assistance to West Bengal, Mr George Deikun, Mission Director of USAID, said that so far the agency had not committed any financial support to the State Government or municipal bodies. Apart from assisting the State Government in creating shared facilities in urban solid waste management, USAID would help creating improved urban infrastructure, he added.
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