Guangxi Roads Development II Project

The difficulties encountered in implementing the intercounty road were attributed to the low capacity of local counties in project implementation. The officers in the Baise Communications Bureau and Baise Highway Administration Bureau had no experience in implementing multilateral development bank-financed projects, particularly in procurement, disbursement, and project management. The lesson is that proactive efforts and timely actions should be undertaken to build the capacity of officers in local counties when they are responsible for local road components. These efforts could include (i) conducting pre-project implementation training for the relevant officers on ADB's procurement guidelines, disbursement procedures, and safeguards policies; (ii) providing on-the-job training to the implementation team on procurement, disbursement, and contract management; and (iii) conducting frequent review of local roads implementation to identify potential problems at an early stage and then take timely action to resolve issues. In addition, frequent communication with project management offices is crucial to ensure that local roads construction is completed according to the plan and implementation schedule.