Annual Development Programme (ADP) an organised list of projects in various sectors and allocations for them for a year out of a five-year plan period for implementation of the government's development policies, programmes and investments in the plan. The ADP is prepared on the basis of the year's development budget approved by the parliament.

The planning commission formulates the ADP of the government of Bangladesh in the light of basic objectives and goals stated in a Five-Year Plan. The draft is then placed for the approval of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC). While preparing an ADP, fields and projects related to national economic development get more priority and concentration. Funds are allocated to implement development projects included in the ADP. Both internal (domestic) and external (aid) funds are used to finance projects. Potential availability of funds often becomes a major consideration in preparing the ADP, which has historically remained dependent upon foreign aid.

The practice of formulating ADP by splitting a Five-Year Plan and implementation thereof started since the First Five-Year Plan (1955-60) of the provincial government of East Pakistan. The size of the ADP of the year 1962-63 under the Second Five-Year Plan (1960-65) of the government of East Pakistan was Rs 1,358.33 million. The ADP for 1962-63 was divided into three parts, each with projects of a group of sectors. Part-I included projects of 10 sectors, namely Water, Power, Health, Social Services, Agriculture, Housing and Settlement, Education and Training, Roads and Communications, Industries, and Manpower and Employment. Projects in Part-II covered large industries such as the East Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation and Pakistan Eastern Railways and Part-III comprised schemes transferred from the central government of Pakistan.

Composition of ADP demonstrated some changes in the first ADP (1965-66) of the Third Five-Year Plan (1965-70). The ADP of the year 1965-66 did not have the different parts and comprised projects grouped in 12 sectors in a new order with a total allocation of Rs 1,951.30 million. The sectors were Water, Power, Agriculture, Industries, Fuel and Minerals, Transport and Communications, Physical Planning and Housing, Education and Training, Health, Social Welfare, Manpower and Employment, Survey and Statistics, and Works.

In 1972-73, the size of the ADP was Tk 5.01 billion, 75% of which was supported by foreign aid. The ADP size has grown consistently over the years and became Tk 9.5 billion in 1975-1976, Tk 21.23 billion in 1979-1980, Tk 50.46 billion in 1987-1988 and Tk 121.00 billion in 1995-1996. The ADP remained heavily dependent upon foreign aid. The share of foreign funds in financing ADP allocations was more than 70% until 1979-1980; it dropped to about 64% in the following two years and then again increased to about 80% in the next three years. The share was more than 90% in the years 1987-1988 and 1990-1991. However, it started to decline in successive years and was 66% in 1995-1996. In 2000-2001, the estimated size of the ADP was Tk 175 billion, about 43% of which were planned to have been financed by foreign aid.

The size of the ADP of the year 2000-2001 was greater than that of the previous year by Tk 20 billion and that of 1972-73 by Tk 169.99 billion. The ADP of 2000-2001 included 1,299 projects, of which only 190 were new and the remaining 1,109 were ongoing ones. These projects were grouped as main programme projects (1,097), technical assistance projects (150), self-financed projects (46), and food for works programmes (6 projects). In addition, the ADP had a block allocation for financing development projects undertaken by local government authorities such as the upazilas and municipalities and the district councils of the chittagong hill tracts region.

The ADP of the year 2000-2001 grouped projects in 17 sectors and their names with share of allocation were Agriculture (5.05%), Rural Development and Institutions (10.42%), Water Resources (5.70%), Industry (2.03%), Power (12.58%), Oil, Gas and Natural Resources (3.74%), Transport (14.11%) and bangabandhu jamuna multipurpose bridge (0.62%), Communication (2.79%), Physical Planning and Water Supply (6.37%), Education and Religious Affairs (13.10%), Sports and Culture (0.64%), Health, Population and Family Welfare (9.72%), Mass Media (0.61%), Social Welfare, Women's Affairs and Youth Development (1.22%), Public Administration (1.27%), Science and Technology (0.43%) and Labour and Manpower (0.10%). Funds allocated as block allocations included those for thanas (1.29%), for municipalities (0.74%) and for Chittagong Hill Tracts (0.29%). In addition, some new projects in the Chittagong Hill Tracts area received 0.11%, allocation for development of special areas except Chittagong Hill Tracts accounted for 0.03%, plain land district councils were given 0.37%, four city corporations 0.66%, Dhaka City Flood Protection Project 1.13%, Dhaka Integrated Flood Protection-cum East Bypass Multipurpose Road Project 0.06%, Canal digging programme 0.17%. About one per cent of the total ADP fund remained unallocated. Two specilised programmes are self-financed programme (1.46%), and Food for Works Programme (2.00%). Of the total ADP amount of Tk 175 billion, Tk 96.89 billion or 55.4% was planned to be financed by local currency, Tk 74.61 billion or 42.6% by project aid from foreign sources, and Tk 3.5 billion or 2% by counterpart fund generated through disbursement of food aid.

The government has a practice of revising the ADP almost every year and the main reason is the failure to receive disbursements of the foreign aid in a general management environment of poor foreign aid utilisation. Sometimes, the government changes the ADP by inclusion of new or exclusion of some listed projects in the midst of the year. More often, delays in approval of projects or in creation of appropriate infrastructure facilities for them cause such revisions. Other causes for revision includes procurement related problems and shortage of taka counterpart fund for the projects. There are cases, when the ADPs are revised in favour of increasing allocations in response to claims of the implementing ministries/agencies for additional allocation of both local and foreign currencies. A part of such additional demand for funds is met from the head of unexpected expenditures in the annual budget. ADPs, however, do not include all development projects of a year. Some projects are kept outside the ADP and are implemented with funds allocated from the revenue budget. Monitoring of the use of funds allocated by ADP is done by a set of specific rules issued by the Ministry of Finance. [Abul Kalam Azad]