ISLAMABAD, Feb 15: The visiting Malaysian business delegation met senior officials of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) here on Tuesday and sought their advice to invest in Pakistan's infrastructure development projects.

"The delegation has sought our views and we told them that it is feasible to invest in Pakistan's infrastructure development for which the ADB is alone investing $980 million," said bank's senior country representative Marshuk Ali Shah.

Talking to Dawn he said the Malaysian business delegation was mainly interested in infrastructure projects relating to roads, ports and shipping, etc. He said Malaysian investors could join hands with their counterparts in Pakistan to help develop new infrastructure projects.

"We told them that there exists a good environment to invest in Pakistan and get a good return as well," he said, adding that the ADB would provide all necessary support to new joint ventures between Pakistan and Malaysia in different fields.

Responding to a question, Mr Shah said the ADB had decided to invest $980 million and $200 million every year mainly in roads and infrastructure development projects.

The ADB official said the Malaysian delegation was informed that Pakistan had been pursing an ambitious reform agenda over the last four years aimed at putting the economy on a stronger and more stable footing.

With the rescheduling of external debts and a more proactive debt management strategy in place, records level of exports, lower interest rates, a buoyant stock market and a continued policy of privatization, Pakistan's GDP growth has been increasing and is projected to rise to 6.6 per cent during 2004-05, Mr Shah observes.

Given the constraints on public sector resources and capacity, the ADB country chief said the private sector needed to play an important role in the infrastructure development to realise Pakistan's vision for higher growth.

To support the private sector in the infrastructure development, he said the Malaysian delegation was told that the ADB would provide assistance for the development strategy to determine the role of private sector in financing, construction, operation and maintaining of infrastructure through the formation of public private partnerships (PPPs).

Similarly, he said that his bank would be assisting to help create policy, regulatory and institutional frameworks to support PPPs and the development of a pilot partnership models for specific projects.

In addition, Mr Shah said the ADB was exploring the use of ordinary capital resources (OCR) lending against GoP guarantees, risk mitigation guarantees, swaps and other products that support the availability of long-term private sector financing for infrastructure projects.

Mr Shah said that under the private sector development strategy, the ADB would continue providing direct assistance to private sector companies through investment, lending, and guarantees, principally for projects in power, water, transport and oil and gas sectors.