ISLAMABAD, July 22: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has concluded consultations with the federal and provincial governments over a $2.7 billion funding offer for 2005-07.

"The ADB will approximately be extending $2.7 billion in new assistance for next three years to Pakistan and in this behalf aid memoirs will be ready by next week," said ADB Country Director Marshuk Ali Shah.

Talking to Dawn here on Thursday, he said that an ADB mission "has held fruitful discussions with all the four provinces" and now a last meeting was to be held next week with the officials of the ministry of finance to finalize the aid package.

"This aid package will be sent to Manila for approval," the ADB country director said.

Responding to a question, Mr Shah said that most of the new funding will go into developing infrastructure, capacity building, health and education. "And a good part of this assistance will also be used for developing a mega city project", he said, adding that initially Pakistan's major cities will be rehabilitated.

He said that roads, buildings, sewerage and other facilities will be improved and rehabilitated for which understanding had been reached between the government of Pakistan and the ADB. He said $100 million will be extended for the mega city project.

Mr Shah, however, said the bank wanted the government to pay attention to the implementation side. "There is a need for seriously pursuing the implementation process so that foreign assistance could really be made meaningful," he said.

He said talks were held between the two sides to also develop social infrastructure, improve rural water supply and empower women in the rural areas. "Our focus would be to provide good funding for these sectors." "But the government needs to improve the delivery services to the people," the ADB official said, adding that without improving delivery services, it would be difficult to improve the lot of the common man in Pakistan.

He said that the government had taken a number of initiatives to improve social indicators. But he said more was required to be done to achieve the desired results.

To another question, he said the ADB was providing roughly $900 million for the year 2004 to Pakistan to help complete a number of development projects in all the four provinces.

Mr Shah said that the Pakistan economy had gathered momentum during the fiscal year 2003-04 as major macro-economic indicators exhibited marked improvements over last year. "But implementation and consistency are the major challenges which need focussed attention of the government," he said.