LAHORE, July 17: The Punjab government is negotiating with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) a loan of $700-900 million for deepening financial, private sector and civil service reforms in the province undertaken under its flagship Punjab Resource Management Programme (PRMP), officials told Dawn on Tuesday.

A fact-finding mission of the ADB has already arrived here to assess the results and impact of the reforms completed under the $400 million programme (PRMP-I), which ended in March this year.

The mission will also develop the next phase (PRMP-II) of reforms programme after consultation with the stakeholders.

The PRMP is organising a three-day series of workshops from Thursday to consult the key stakeholders and firm up the reforms proposed to be undertaken in the second phase. “The main objective of the workshops is to generate ideas and establish concerns for the long-term vision of the Punjab government on the reform areas,” an official said.

The proposed reform areas include development of Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), deepening of ongoing pension and GP fund and procurement reforms, institutional strengthening and capacity building of civil services for improving service delivery, and removal of regulatory and other impediments in the growth of private sector.

After the conclusion of consultative workshops, the ADB mission is scheduled to hold separate meetings with the implementing departments as well as senior officials, including Chief Secretary Salman Siddique and Planning and Development Chairman Suleman Ghani.

International experts who have been engaged by the provincial government for developing the reforms package under the PRMP-II include Jeremy Gadbury for pension and GP fund reforms; Stephen Perkins for MTEF; Rob Laking and Shahid Kardar for institutional strengthening and civil service reforms; and Dr Faisal Bari and Crispin Gardener Webster for private sector development.

In the first phase of the reforms lasting about four years, the Punjab government has set up a provincial procurement authority, initiated tax reforms, developed poverty focused investment strategy and launched pension fund. Besides, it has also developed a debt management strategy, under which it has retired expensive federal loans with soft-term, low-cost loans obtained from the multilateral donors.