ISLAMABAD, Aug 16: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is restructuring 30 projects - out of a total 81 - it financed as part of a policy shift towards Pakistan to a focussed rather than broad-based operational lending for better investment outcomes, a senior ADB executive said.

“In the past, our strategy was quite broad-based and this led us to occasionally spreading our resources too thin,” said Juan Miranda, Director-General of ADB’s Central and West Asia Department, here at a news conference at the conclusion of his four-day visit.

“The new strategy will be focused and lead to value-added interventions in areas where ADB has core competency,” he added.

This would be a marked departure from bank’s existing lending strategy for Pakistan where 30 ADB-funded projects -- out of total 81 ongoing schemes -- were either described as slow-moving, problematic, out of focus or not yielding desired results, although its overall direct financing would increase to $2 billion per year from $1.5 billion.

Mr Miranda said many of these projects were currently going through restructuring and ‘spring clearing’ process to redesign them according to present-day requirements.

The ‘spring clearing’ in layman’s terms is stoppage and diversion of funds from failing projects to new projects. Many projects in the process consume billions of rupees in foreign exchange without achieving desired results.

The objective of the process, he said, is to ‘free out’ financing space to put it back into a more productive area for better results.

He said poverty, electricity, energy security, better logistics and urban renewal were some of the key challenges for Pakistan. Likewise, he said, Pakistan’s export base was too narrow, compared with other countries in the region and that was a cause of concern for development banks and economists.

Under the new strategy, Mr Miranda said the ADB would have a focussed approach designed around four pillars.

First, investment in infrastructure to lift the people and improve facilities and utilities like water, waste management, power and gas; second, second-generation reforms for improving financial sector, including banking, non-banking, governance and private sector development; third, improvement in Pakistan’s competitiveness and fourth, better implementation and outcomes.

He said the bank was also strengthening its resident mission in Pakistan by increasing the number of senior international experts from eight to 14 and senior Pakistani officials from 19 to about 29 to ensure that facilities were improved and projects were programmatic.

At the same time, the bank would also improve its disclosure policy at the national level.

Under programme financing, the ADB would provide $1 billion in the first year of national trade corridor project and then $300-500 million every year.

Similarly, it would also extend another $2 billion over three years for energy sector, including electricity generation, transmission and distribution. It will also extend $1.5 billion in three years for urban infrastructure development, including Karachi, Punjab and NWFP.

The rest of the funding would come in sectors, like insurance, pension funds, decentralisation of health and education, information, computer and technology and vocational education.

The ADB director-general said the bank would be investing in a big way in industrialisation process in Pakistan through creation of industrial, technological and business parks and joint ventures in warehousing in many parts of the country.

Mr Miranda said the ADB and the World Bank would finance and provide any other technical support that Pakistan may need for development of mega water projects, like Kalabagh dam and Bhasha dam on the basis of best international practices in terms of environmental and social safeguards, but a decision about the project, its timing and sequencing of various projects would have to be made by the government of Pakistan. He said the government was currently engaged in addressing these issues.

He said the bank would also provide technical, financial and analytical support as honest brokers for energy import projects, like gas pipeline from Turkmenistan and electricity import form Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.