June 27, 2006	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 30, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, June 26: The Asian Development Bank on Monday indicated to upscale its financing as Pakistan sought higher funding from it for five major dams, national highways, energy and trade corridor to meet its growing economic requirements and create regional connectivity.

The financial support was formally sought by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in his meeting with a visiting delegation of the ADB, led by its vice-president Liquin Jin and comprising his adviser Hong Wang and ADB country director Peter L. Fedon.

The ADB team assured Mr Aziz of the bank’s support in the implementation of plans for economic development of the country and social welfare of the people. Mr Jin offered to further upscale ADB financing to Pakistan in this context.

Earlier, a team led by adviser to the prime minister on finance Dr Salman Shah, the secretary-general of finance and secretaries of communication and water and power and the Planning Commission gave detailed presentations on their wish-lists, totalling about $60 billion over next five years.

Mr Aziz asked the ADB to contribute in the construction of hydel projects, north-south corridor and regional energy, trade and transportation corridors, said an official announcement.

Dr Shah informed the delegation that Pakistan was keenly interested in development of water and energy sectors, communication network and oil and gas pipelines also for generating employment opportunities for the people.

The secretary of water and power gave a presentation on energy requirements of the country and the strategic programmes chalked out to exploit indigenous energy resources — including coal, wind, hydel, nuclear and oil — to cater for national requirements of energy.

He asked for the ADB’s help in execution of ‘prospective’ water projects and underscored the role and assistance of the ADB in providing new technologies in the flood control projects.

Mr Shah said President Musharraf had announced that five mega dam projects would be completed in 10 years, which required a robust infrastructure for their execution.

Mr Jin said Pakistan was confronted with two major issues, infrastructure and energy, and asked the authorities to formulate a comprehensive and viable infrastructure development plan to meet energy requirements of the country.