ISLAMABAD, Feb 5 The United States` Eximbank will provide grants, technical training, support for preparation of feasibilities and debt financing and project loans for the public sector of Pakistan.

Official sources told Dawn on Tuesday that Eximbank had made arrangements with three Pakistani banks — National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), MCB Bank and Standard Chartered Pakistan — to provide finances for the public sector projects.

US Ambassador to Pakistan Ms Anne W. Patterson had informed senior Pakistani officials last week that Eximbank also planned to finance the projects in the private sector.

She said that Eximbank had upgraded its sovereign risk rating for Pakistan. The bank was now open to finance Pakistan`s purchases of US goods and services in the public sector, from short-term, 180-day sales to contract on repayment terms of five years or more.

While the cost of financing would be now 13pc less and for larger projects the support for Pakistan`s purchases of US exports through structured and project finance where repayment was based on cash flows from the project itself.

In a meeting with Minister for Investment, Privatisation and Commerce Shahzada Alam Manoo and Board of Investment (BoI) Federal Secretary Mushtaq Malik, she discussed the potential of US Investment in the Pakistan.

When contacted the BoI secretary told Dawn that they had a very fruitful meeting with the US envoy in terms of receiving all possible financial and technical support for both the public and private sectors.

He said that out of $500 million US Overseas Private Investment Corporation`s (Opic) guarantee, $120 million was being used now by NBP, MCB Bank and the Union Bank.

“We have also decided to hold an international conference in the United States in April and the ambassador has assured to provide all the cooperation and assistance,” Mr Malik said.

The BoI secretary said that foreign investment was one of the major pillars to enhance the competitiveness of the services and manufacturing industries and it had brought with it the know-how, expertise, new technology and financing facilities, resultantly generating employment and reducing poverty.

The US Ambassador, he pointed out, was informed that Pakistan needed more investment from the US and Western countries to receive the long-term benefits.

He said that the US was providing its support to the BoI through the Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) to restructure the Board of Investment and enhance the efficiency of its operations.

The US envoy was further elaborated that in order to enhance the efficiency of it operations the BoI had been given the Investment Division status to deal directly with the high-level decision-makers, including the Prime Minister, Ecnec and ECC.

This new structure, he said, was based on the international best practices where the CSF assisted the government to benchmark the BoI with other relevant agencies in the region.

With the CSF assistance the BoI has formed a Foreign Investor Council (FIC) to serve as a forum for policy dialogue between the government and the foreign investor community to increase FDI inflows; bring together the expertise and experience of top multinationals and present it to the government; generate favourable opinion from international business community on government`s measures to improve the investment climate.

The secretary also said that he informed the US ambassador that the BoI was also trying to build up the capacity of its staff for more professionalism and efficiency. The BoI has been working, with the assistance of the CSF, to design an investment strategy which will promote foreign and domestic private investment; investment treatment and protection; facilitation of foreign and private investment.