PESHAWAR, Jan 2: Slow execution of development projects funded by the Asian Development Bank will be discussed during a meeting between development planners of the NWFP government and a delegation of the bank here on Monday.

According to official sources, the meeting is part of a series of 'provincial portfolio review meetings' which take place on quarterly basis. The team will be led by country director M. Ali Shah.

The ADB is providing funds for 15 development projects under which scores of schemes are being executed in various parts of the province. "Progress on most of the projects is quite satisfactory but there are some projects which involve grey areas making it difficult for the provincial government to defend its case before the donor agency," said an official of the provincial government.

Heads of all projects have been asked to attend the meeting in which the provincial government's team would be led by senior minister Sirajul Haq, who is supervising the affairs of the finance and planning and development departments.

Heads of the provincial government departments concerned and a representative of the AG Office would also attend the meeting to assist the minister, they said. "ADB has reservations viz-a-viz on-farm water management project being executed simultaneously in several of the districts," said the official.

The bank's team, the official said, was expected to ask about the slow execution of the project funding line from ADB. The NWFP government, the sources said, faced a difficult time in front of international donor agencies, particularly, the ADB and the World Bank, because of slow execution of development schemes during the first quarter of the current financial year.

Though the situation improved during the second quarter of the current fiscal year, still the government was required to put in extra effort to satisfy its financial donors, especially the World Bank and the ADB, said a development planner of the province.