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| March 15, 2002 | Friday | Zilhaj 30, 1422 |
ADB to provide $70m for six uplift projects
ISLAMABAD, March 14: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide $710 million to Pakistan to undertake six development projects during 2002.
“We have identified six development projects for which initially 710 million dollars will be offered to Pakistan, out of a total of one-billion-dollar funding lined up for this calender year,” said Marshuk Ali Shah, senior resident representative of the ADB in Pakistan.
Talking to Dawn here the other day, he said $250 million would be extended for phase-2 of Capital Development Market Loan, $30 million for Sindh Rural Development Project, $30 million for Education Quality Improvement and Teacher Training Project in Punjab, $150 million for Punjab Rural Road Project, $150 million for Rural Financing Project and $100 million for Punjab Public Resource Management Project.
Loans for some of the projects, he said, had been offered on marginal interest rates, including the Asian Development Finance (ADF) loan on 1.5 per cent interest rate for 32 years with eight years’ grace period. While some other loans, he added, were in line with the London Inter Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR), and were offered on 2.7 per cent interest rate for 24 years with a grace period of five years.
The ADB official said that generally ADB loans were offered on World Bank International Development Agency’s (IDA) terms, which were soft and were for longer periods.
Replying to a question, he said donors were still asking for guarantees about the protection of political and economic reforms being introduced and implemented by the government of President Gen Pervez Musharraf.
Mr Shah said investment by the private sector was needed in Pakistan. “We have already contributed 150 million dollars for setting up micro finance banks both in public and in private sectors.”
He added that a bank, established by the Aga Khan Foundation, would also be offered loans so that it could extend them to the poorest of the poor in the society.
He hoped that the establishment of Koshhali Bank in the public sector and First Micro Finance Bank in the private sector would attract foreign investment in the country.
He said government’s efforts to alleviate poverty needed to be supported by the multilateral agencies and the foreign private bank. “Without reducing poverty, it will be difficult to achieve an economic survival,” he said.
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