The indicative resources available for commitment during 2021-2023 for sovereign operations for Pakistan is $5.436 billion, says Asia Development Bank (ADB).
These resources comprise $3.645 billion for regular Ordinary Capital Resources (OCR) lending and $1.79 billion for concessional OCR lending (COL).
The ADB has updated its website, according to which the Country Operation Business Plan (COBP) 2021-23 for Pakistan is consistent with its country partnership strategy for Pakistan, 2021– 2025. These are aligned with the government of Pakistan’s development strategy, ADB’s Strategy 2030, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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About 13 percent of the pipeline supports the government’s response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The final allocation will depend on, among other factors, available resources, project readiness, and the outcome of the country’s performance assessments, it added.
Co-financing and funding from other sources, including grants from the Asian Development Fund (ADF-13) thematic pool for projects addressing specific challenges and ADB’s non-sovereign operations subject to headroom constraints, will be explored to augment the annual indicative resources available for commitment.
The proposed sovereign lending program for 2021–2023 totals $6,336 million, consisting of $4,546 million from regular OCR lending and $1,790 million from COL (which includes 17 percent over-programming to respond to operational adjustments).
Policy-based lending operations for 2021–2023 will be subject to resource and headroom availability under ADB’s policy-based lending ceiling. The non-lending program for 2021–2023 is $23.5 million, inclusive of ADB and other sources, the majority of which are transaction technical assistance for projects in the pipeline.
The update further noted that ADB would increase its non-sovereign operations footprint through an enhanced focus on financial institutions, food security, and infrastructure.
ADB also will continue to facilitate trade finance and seek opportunities to support demonstrative projects in logistics and agriculture value chains and alternative financing options for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.
Where feasible, private sector operations will generate synergies with ADB’s public sector assistance by providing blended finance solutions, supporting privatizations, and focusing on public–private partnership opportunities.
ADB will explore policy-based guarantee and local currency financing to optimize government and private sector financing, and support the development of Pakistan’s capital markets, it added.
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ADB’s COBP will adopt a multi-sector approach that brings together all of ADB’s resources to provide integrated solutions to clients. ADB will seek opportunities to mobilize private sector financing and partners for development projects; to enhance financing and technical assistance support for public-private partnership projects; and in areas such as climate change, trade finance, small and medium-sized enterprises, insurance, agribusiness, housing, and tourism development.
Around 29 percent ($1.84 billion) of the COBP is committed for the energy sector, 16.4 percent ($1.04 billion) for transport, 14.8 percent ($938 million) for agriculture, natural resources, and rural development, 10 percent ($636 million) for water and other urban infrastructure and services, 12.6 percent ($800 million) for Finance, 5 percent ($315 million) for education, and 1.7 percent ($110 million) for the health sector.
