March 18, 2006	Saturday	Safar 17, 1427

ISLAMABAD, March 17: ADB Senior Financial Sector Specialist Ranier Hartel and Dr Salman Shah, adviser to the prime minister on finance, on Friday held a meeting and discussed the modalities to speed up the process of infrastructure development on the basis of public-private partnership and SME sector development.

State Minister for Finance Omar Ayub Khan and Finance Secretary Tanvir Ali Agha also attended the meeting.

According to a press release the ADB had signed a loan agreement with government of Pakistan for $150 million to support SME sector. The first tranche of $35 million may be released in June this year.

The meeting discussed strategies to create a private entity and an Infrastructure Project Development Fund (IPDF) mobilizing the financing facilities for the projects with the help of public-private partnership and the ADB.

The IPDF would explore possibility of filling market-financing gap after having offered the project to private sector and it would contribute to economic growth, generate employment and poverty reduction.