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Lesson
Institutional capacity building for establishing an enabling environment. For IEM to be effective and successful, cooperating and collaborating institutions and sectors must be supported by IEM knowledge and skills for policy making, planning, legislation, and joint management of the environment and natural resources. Joint and effective management of environmental and natural resources requires improving the capacities of cooperating and collaborating with government institutions for combining top-down and bottom-up approaches.

Project Number: 36445-022
Project Name: Capacity Building to Combat Land Degradation Project
Report Date:
Lesson
A small equity investment can have a large impact in the right circumstances, especially if it is supported by TA and policy reforms. Although ADB’s equity investment in BNB was largely effective in achieving its aims, it illustrates that small investments are not easy for ADB to handle within its cost structure.

Project Number: 29243/29243-01/31912
Project Name: Financial Sector Intermediation Facility and Equity Investment in Bhutan National Bank
Report Date:
Lesson
The key problems and constraints of SME access to credit in Bhutan needed to be better understood. Problems included high interest rates, short loan amortization periods, and excessive collateral requirements. The FSIF loan had no effect on these.

Project Number: 29243/29243-01/31911
Project Name: Financial Sector Intermediation Facility and Equity Investment in Bhutan National Bank
Report Date:
Lesson
The failure of interest rate liberalization was also partly a failure of analysis. Removing overt administrative control of interest rates may make little difference to prevailing rates and practices if there is little competition between lenders because of the sector’s oligopolistic and closely held structure. Several factors made it unlikely that simple deregulation of rate setting would be conclusive.

Project Number: 29243/29243-01/31910
Project Name: Financial Sector Intermediation Facility and Equity Investment in Bhutan National Bank
Report Date:
Lesson
Delays in the establishment of a credit information bureau was also partly a failure of analysis. Costs were underestimated and the problems were not fully understood. Founding a CIB in Bhutan is not only a problem of coordination among the lending institutions. The challenge is more fundamental, with the essential problem being the poor data systems and practices of the lending institutions. Substantive analysis at the design stage of the FSIF would probably have identified this issue and allowed ADB and RGoB to address it earlier.

Project Number: 29243/29243-01/31909
Project Name: Financial Sector Intermediation Facility and Equity Investment in Bhutan National Bank
Report Date:
Lesson
Insufficient analytical underpinnings led to formal rather than substantive compliance with tranche release conditions. Joint undertakings with other donors and RGoB might have strengthened the substantive analysis of policies and the robustness of the dialogue with RGoB. 60 For example, requiring that RGoB formulate an FDI policy, without engaging substantively on the substance of that policy, was not useful. A policy was written and adopted, but a new attempt was being made to formulate a workable policy in 2009.

Project Number: 29243/29243-01/31908
Project Name: Financial Sector Intermediation Facility and Equity Investment in Bhutan National Bank
Report Date:
Lesson
Another lesson is that if ADB brings a private partner into the deal with the aim of facilitating capacity development, it should only go with a strategic investor with relevant banking experience, who will remain as a shareholder for a long time and thus play an active role in the management and corporate governance of an institution. In this particular case, the investor was not actively involved in managing the institution and acted more like a financial than a strategic investor.

Project Number: 29243/29243-01/31913
Project Name: Financial Sector Intermediation Facility and Equity Investment in Bhutan National Bank
Report Date:
Lesson
Sewer construction. For the Tangshan component, construction of a fully functioning sewer system should have been adequately addressed during the planning stage. The construction delay had a negative impact on the project. Technical preparation needs to be enhanced, as does overall coordination of project implementation among government agencies.

Project Number: 32327-013
Project Name: Hebei Province Wastewater Management Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Sludge treatment. Proper handling of sludge has been an issue for most wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) operating in the People's Republic of China (PRC) since traditional landfill options have become problematic. The government and WWTPs must find alternative solutions for sludge treatment. More sustainable sludge treatment methodologies may need to be considered during project preparation. Tangshan and Baoding are piloting the composting of sludge for fertilizer; however, this solution may not be sustainable without clear safety measures, due to increasing health concerns.

Project Number: 32327-013
Project Name: Hebei Province Wastewater Management Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Land acquisitions and resettlement. Most of the compensation rates for resettlement were higher than those in the resettlement plans. However, according to the data provided by each municipal sewerage company (MSC), the total resettlement costs for permanent land acquisition, temporary land use, building demolition, and associated items on the ground were lower than those estimated in the resettlement plan.

Project Number: 32327-013
Project Name: Hebei Province Wastewater Management Project
Report Date:
Lesson
Reclaimed water development. The government has not recognized the tariff issues related to recycled water, although 30% of treated wastewater is being recycled as of 30 June 2010. The government needs to streamline the tariff system for recycled water, including tariff setup, charging standards, and collection mechanisms.

Project Number: 32327-013
Project Name: Hebei Province Wastewater Management Project
Report Date:
Lesson
ADB should obtain a stronger commitment from executing agencies to institutional strengthening and provide stronger M&E to meet that commitment.

Project Number: 33441-013
Project Name: Acid Rain Control and Environmental Improvement Project [Loan 1890-PRC]
Report Date:
Lesson
The Anhui Provincial Government (APG) and ADB should ensure that the executing agency and/or PMO staff has the capacity to carry out the procurement in accordance with ADB guidelines before project procurement starts. This requirement should be made integral to the outputs of the project preparatory TA and recorded in the RRPs.

Project Number: 33441-013
Project Name: Acid Rain Control and Environmental Improvement Project [Loan 1890-PRC]
Report Date:
Lesson
Bidding of expressway civil works took place in early 2002 and the government approved the detailed design in mid-2002. Thus, among other factors, bidding which was not based on detailed design resulted in some significant variations for large structures with complicated geotechnical situations. Based on this experience and similar experience in other road projects, it would be appropriate to conduct in-depth detailed geotechnical investigations before finalizing bidding documents.

Project Number: 30424-013
Project Name: Shaanxi Roads Development Project
Report Date:
Lesson
The impacts of land acquisition and resettlement were not well estimated in the resettlement plan, which led to a 30% increase in the amount of land acquisition and a 187% increase in house demolition area. This was mainly due to impacts induced by connection roads and service stations, as well as temporary buildings that had not been included in the resettlement plan. The project was processed in early 2000, but updating the resettlement plan has since been made a standard requirement stipulated in loan covenants.

Project Number: 30424-013
Project Name: Shaanxi Roads Development Project
Report Date: