The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will disburse $200 million for second generation capital market reforms before the end of the current financial year. An ADB mission led by Central West Asian Development Director General Juan Miranda provided this assurance in a meeting with Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh on Wednesday. A statement issued by the Finance Ministry said that during the meeting, the mission supported Pakistan for the construction of Diamer Bhasha Dam and agreed to take further steps in this regard.
The dam will have the capacity to store 8.1 million acre feet of water and will generate 4,500MW of electricity. USAID has already indicated to jointly finance the project. The ADB mission also agreed in principle to finance the tube-wells’ refurbishment project that will help save 1,147MW of electricity across the country. The ADB team also discussed ways and means to accelerate the process of project implementation and expressed satisfaction with their dialogue with Pakistani authorities. The meeting also deliberated on exploring ways and means to extend support to Pakistan in enhancing medium-term growth prospects.
The mission reiterated that ADB remained committed to supporting Pakistan’s water, energy, urban services and communication sectors. The finance minister briefed the ADB team on revenue and budgetary measures that the government implemented, as well as efforts for broadening the tax net.
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