2017-19 period: ADB says project performance falls modestly

The Independent Evaluation Department (IED) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said that Pakistan's project performance marginally declined, from 80 percent in 2016-18 to 78 percent in 2017-19.

The IED in its latest report, "Annual Evaluation Review, 2020" stated that of the 160 sovereign operations assessed in 2017?19, South Asia accounted for 29 percent, followed by Southeast Asia (24 percent), Central and West Asia (23 percent), the Pacific (12 percent), and East Asia (11 percent).

Of the projects assessed in Central and West Asia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan each accounted for 24 percent, and these two countries made up 12 percent of the ADB total.

The report stated that Central and West Asia project performance declined from 81 percent in 2016-18 to 76 percent in 2017- 2019.

This was driven by Uzbekistan's performance, which dropped from 89 percent in 2016-18 to 78 percent in 2017-19, following successive improvements since 2013-15.

Pakistan's performance marginally declined, from 80 percent in 2016-18 to 78 percent in 2017-19.

While 16 countries have used the Multi-tranche Facility Financing (MFF) modality so far, four of them have accounted for almost two thirds of the approved MFF financing of $52 billion since 2005.

These were: India (30 percent), Pakistan (16 percent), Bangladesh (10 percent), and Vietnam (nine percent).

Between 2008 and 2017, the ADB provided $27 billion in policy-based lending (PBLs) through 181 operations, approximately 21 percent of its overall sovereign operations. Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Vietnam accounted for about 65 percent of all the PBL approvals by value in 2008-17.

Energy, the second largest operational sector under Strategy 2030, was the focus of the sector assistance programme evaluation for Pakistan, the report stated.