ISLAMABAD – Asian Development Bank (ADB) has reportedly approved assistancepackage worth $7.5 billions for Pakistan over next three years.
Director General Strategy, Policy & Review Department Tomoyuki Kimuracalled on Finance Minister Asad Umar.
During the meeting, the finance minister said that ADB’s continued supportand pro-active approach has further strengthened its relationship andpartnership with Pakistan, which is now at a historic high level. Pakistanachieved more than 1 billion USD disbursement from ADB during FY2018 whichis the highest disbursement amongst all multilateral development partners,he said.
Asad Umer went on to say that the PTI government is taking various measuresand reforms that will help the country steer out of current economicsituation on both fronts i.e. external economic challenges including tradedeficit, low FDI and forex reserves. As regards domestic challenges, we arefocusing on fiscal consolidation, monetary policy and financial inclusion.
He also appreciated ADB’s recently approved Country Operations BusinessPlan (COBP) 2019-2021 for Pakistan with an indicative assistance of US$7.5billion.
Read Top Stories
The ADB DG apprised the minister about salient features of the ADB 2030strategy. He dilated on different new lending products including specialpolicy based lending. The discussion also focused on private sector lending.
“The ADB will also provide programme lending facility to Pakistan to thetune of $2.3 billion in the next three years, starting 2019, in the spheresof future energy sector development, trade and competitiveness and capitalmarket development. This lending facility, it may be added, is part of theCOBP,” he added.
