Finance Minister Ishaq Dar Wednesday said that the major portion, over 80 percent, of the pledges made by the international community at the recently concluded International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan were project loans.
During a press conference alongside Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other ministers, Dar said that the said project loans will be rolled out over the next three years. Without giving an exact figure, he mentioned that the project loans account for over $8 billion of the total amount pledged.
At the ouster, the prime minister mentioned that the total amount pledged at the conference stood at $9.7 billion. The premier said that he expected the terms of the project loans to be lenient.
Providing the breakdown, the prime minister said that the highest pledge was made by the Islamic Development Bank which stood at $4.2 billion, followed by World Bank with $2 billion, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) with $1 billion, and the Asian Development Bank pledged $500 million.
Listing pledges by individual countries, he stated that Azerbaijan promised $2 million, Canada $18.6 million, China $100 million, Denmark $3.8 million, the European Union €87 million, France €380 million, Germany €84 million, Italy €23 million, Japan $77 million, the Netherlands $3.5 million, Norway $6.6 million, Qatar $25 million, Saudi Arabia $1 billion, Sweden $7.5 million, and Britain with £36 million.
