August 27, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Saani 17,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 26: The Asian Development Bank has formulated a $2.4 billion Country Strategy and Programme (CSP) for Pakistan to support a number of initiatives, including poverty alleviation, good governance and targeted projects for women.

“We will be extending average $800 million annually for ensuring good governance, agriculture, rural development, energy development, transport, finance, health and education, and water supply and sanitation in both urban and rural areas,” said ADB Country Director for Pakistan, Murshuk Ali Shah.

Speaking at a news conference here on Monday, he said out of $2.4 billion proposed assistance, 60 per cent had been earmarked specifically for programmes that have a direct impact on poverty reduction. In terms of projected allocations for the various sectors, 27 per cent is for the social sector, 22 per cent for governance and finance, and 13 per cent for agriculture and rural development.

In addition, a technical assistance programme worth $5-6 million annually, supporting project processing and advisory/capacity building assistance had been programmed.

As part of the ADB’s Economic Sector Work Programme, the country strategy and programme would support research, analysis, and dialogue on key economic policy issues and concerns such as public expenditure and resource management, regional cooperation, rural livelihood enhancement strategies, and support for devaluation.

Murshuk Shah said while the ADB’s assistance had previously been coursed through the federal government, the Local Government Plan of 2000 provided an opportunity to provide assistance directly to the provincial and local governments.

“Because of its potential to greatly enhance the impact of development assistance, ADB’s strategy will be to increasingly provide assistance directly to the provincial and local governments. As a step in this direction, ADB will assist in the improvement of provincial public resource management frameworks and build the necessary institutional capacity at the local level,” he added.

He said ADB endorsed the government’s poverty reduction’ strategy and that the ADB’s operational strategy for Pakistan would complement the government’s efforts. However, the ADB’s operational strategy would be selective and would focus on interventions aimed at addressing critical bottlenecks, and promoting growth in sectors or activities that have the maximum poverty reduction impact.

The main thrust of the CSP is to support poverty reduction in Pakistan through assistance in priority areas of shared strategic importance.