- Senator Dar says Asian Bank to also enhance annual financial allocation for Pakistan
- ‘Pakistan has a great partnership experience with Asian Development Bank’
Pakistan will hopefully get financial allocation of $2.5 billion as infrastructural financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help country’s economy to post seven per cent growth rate by 2019.
In an interview with APP here, Federal Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar said that he had a meeting with ADB President Takehiko Nakao and the bank was requested to consider the financial allocation of $ 2.5 billion, under infrastructural financing in view of the surging requirements of that sector.
The minister described his meeting with the ADB president, held on the sidelines of the ADB board’s 50th annual meeting as very productive and useful. He said that the Asian Bank had already agreed in principle for enhancing its annual financial allocation for Pakistan to two billion dollars.
In fact, the Asian Bank was requested last year, during its meeting held in Frankfurt in that regard, which also led to merging of two major financing lines as part of its plan for 2017-19. To a question, Senator Dar explained that Pakistan had a long-term basis plans and activities regarding financing for economic development with the bank.
He said that the bank always extended substantial cooperation as a part of its lending policy in the energy sector and state-owned enterprises reforms. Citing Pakistan’s long partnership with the bank, he said that the Asian Bank extended financial support valuing $1.2 billion for the infrastructure project last year.
Besides the bank had made commitments of $1.2 billion for the National Disaster Risk Management Fund, out of which $200 million had been released by the bank. He said that the government has strategised its measures and arrangements to deal with the flood calamity, since there was no strategy earlier in place to handle flood-stricken situation in Pakistan.
The finance minister said that he had meetings with the presidents of multilateral development institutions, including the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
He said that he would have back-to-back engagements during his stay the next three days with regard to annual, bilateral and multilateral meetings on the fringes of golden jubilee annual meeting. He said that he was also one of the five panelists at the launch of the book on 50 years history of the Asian Bank.
ADB BOOK: Expressing his views as panelist at the launching ceremony of the ADB history book – Banking on the Future of Asia and the Pacific: 50 Years of the Asian Development Bank, Senator Dar said that remarkable work was done by documenting 50 years history of the Asian Bank and highlighting its stentorian role in the economic development and growth of the Asia-Pacific region.
Along with ADB President Takehiko Nakao and other panelists, he said that Pakistan had a great partnership experience with the bank. He observed that the bank was the nearest place and any regional country could approach it in the hour of need. The bank played an important role in the Asian economies’ miracles, he added.
He said that the bank proved to be a good partner and it made the financing available to the member countries in support of their struggle for economic development. He was of the firm view that the Asian Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank were not rivals rather complementary for each other. He also said that the regional connectivity, cooperation and coordination was much-needed for mutual benefits.
Commenting on the problems facing regional economies, the minister said that there could not be a single generic solution for all the countries, since their problems were of different nature thus needed to be addressed through diverse means. During the discussions, he said that Japan extended enormous support and good leadership to the Asian Bank, which proved successful on the basis of its performance.
Earlier, the book released at the ADB’s 50th annual meeting of the board of governors, unveiled details about ADB’s activities from its origin in 1966, decade by decade to the present day. It also illustrates the genesis of ADB regarding different proposals from across Asia and the Pacific, preparatory meetings in Bangkok, Manila and other cities, and collaboration of people within and outside the region to discuss the charter, membership, and location of the headquarters.
The book, authored by Peter McCawley, an academic from the Australian National University, a former ADB executive director and former dean of the ADB Institute, was supported by the intensive work of a team of ADB staff, and benefitted from comments and inputs of numerous people, including former ADB personnel.
The book aims to review how ADB over 50 years has responded to Asia’s challenges given its unique regional perspective. It provides an objective and comprehensive account of ADB’s 50 years through three historical narratives Asia’s economic development, the evolution of the international development agenda, and the story of ADB itself.
ADB President Takehiko Nakao said that the unique character of this book was to discuss Asia’s economic history, from the perspective of development and based on the rich experience of ADB’s interaction with the countries. In his foreword, Nakao wrote that ADB was a child of the genuine aspiration by people across the region, and that the establishment of ADB represented a spirit of regional cooperation.
Looking back at achievements in supporting its developing member countries, he summarised them into three broad functions – combining finance (loans and grants) with knowledge in infrastructure and social sector projects; promoting good policies through dialogue, capacity building, and policy-based lending; and catalysing regional cooperation and friendship.
