Pakistan Can See Rapid Economic Growth Due to A Youthful Population and Strategic Location: ADB

Pakistan has the potential for rapid economic growth and development with a youthful, growing population and strategic location, Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Country Director for Pakistan, Xiaohong Yang, said.

She said, “Under vision 2025, the country aims to achieve upper-middle-income status and provide quality jobs to its growing labor force. But Pakistan has struggled with boom-and-bust cycles in previous years due to low export capacity, weak domestic revenue, and other systemic challenges.”


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“This was further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a sharp downturn in 2020 and is likely to push more people into poverty,” she said in an interview. Further adding, “Pakistan has the potential to become a regional hub for trade and economic activity, but greater cooperation is impeded by weak connectivity and trade links.”

She also shared that ADB is taking major steps in providing critical finance for the government to implement its pro-poor fiscal and monetary policy, and to deal with the impacts of the pandemic.

She said that ADB is also working towards introducing best practices, building capacity, and sharing knowledge through close partnerships with all stakeholders. Manila-based lender financed and co-financed $2 billion loans to help Pakistan overcome the pandemic challenges.

The ADB already endorsed a new country partnership strategy for 2021–2025, designed to help restore economic stability and growth. It will also deploy its sovereign and non-sovereign operations to support infrastructure, agribusiness, and finance sector investments.

ADB will target reforms that boost competitiveness and private sector development, create jobs and drive market innovation.


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Yang said flagship projects such as the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India pipeline project and Turkmenistan–Uzbekistan–Tajikistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan electricity project would contribute to Pakistan’s energy security.

ADB will also continue to support disaster risk reduction and management, including investments in irrigation infrastructure, which would make Pakistan more resilient to water shortages, future flooding, and food security, Yang said.



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