ISLAMABAD, March 4: The Asian Development Bank has accepted Pakistan’s request to extend it concessional loans to help improve its economy in a big way.

“I am glad to tell you that the ADB has agreed to extend on concessional terms most of its $1 billion loans lined up for 2002,” Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz told Dawn.

He said he had met the eight-member ADB delegation and discussed with it increased cooperation between the two sides. “We have told the delegation that ADB loans should be need-driven rather than donor-determined.”

The finance minister said the government was expecting additional assistance from the ADB for health, education and development projects that aimed at poverty alleviation.

Mr Zhao Xiaoyu, head of the eight-member Delegation of the Executive Directors of Asian Development Bank, currently on a week-long visit to Pakistan, during a meeting with Aziz, said Pakistan’s reforms agenda was being implemented satisfactorily since its introduction two years ago.

Mr Xiaoyu said the performance of the government was result-oriented; it had shown reasonably good results and the ADB would make an effort to speed up disbursement of the almost $1 billion in assistance agreed earlier.

Pakistan, he observed, was now visible on international economic radar screen and hoped that the ADB delegation’s visit would help devise a country strategy, enabling the government to address these issues more effectively.

Mr Zhao Xiaoyu said the ADB was prepared to work together as a major stakeholder and development partner for access to justice, good governance and poverty reduction programmes. He also endorsed Pakistan’s poverty reduction strategy and assured of continued ADB support. The finance minister said that Pakistan was pursuing the reforms agenda announced by President Pervez Musharraf. He said Pakistan was thankful to ADB for its contribution towards a holistic approach to reduce poverty in the country.

He said that the strategy of the government was to arrest growth of poverty, flatten it, and then gradually reduce it. He said that instead of short-term solutions, the government was committed to long-term reforms for far-reaching impact on the social and economic fibre of the country.

He informed the delegation that the prudent fiscal management had enabled the government to reduce GDP gap by over one per cent. After the Paris Club re-profiling of debt stock, “the debt servicing has flattened, gross foreign exchange reserves have crossed over $5 billion, exchange rate has stabilized, remittances from overseas Pakistanis have increased and international credit rating has improved. As a result the net debt has reduced.”

He said the effects of last year’s drought were serious and needed major effort to improve production of the agriculture sector. Later, in a brainstorming session, the ADB delegation was briefed by the ministers of agriculture, commerce, law and population planning.

Mr Razzak Daud, Minister for Commerce, said that the government was preparing the country to enter with confidence into WTO regime. He said that tariff reforms were in the process of being implemented. Market forces had been allowed to determine the prices.