Finance Ministry has signed an agreement for a loan of $3.4 billion from Asian Development Bank (ADB) for budgetary support and development projects; Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Khusro Bakhtyar told on Saturday. Addressing a news conference here at Planning Commission, the minister said the ADB would provide $2.1 billion in coming financial year 2019-20 for development projects.
The minister further said Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani would make historic visit of Pakistan in the next few days. He said the joint cooperation of the two countries would be strengthening after the visit of the Emir of Qatar to Pakistan. He said, "We are expecting maximum financial support from Qatar." The minister said despite fiscal deficit, revenue shortfall and current account deficit; the government has allocated Rs 951 billion under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2019-20 for various development projects. He said Rs 250 billion out of Rs 951 billion have been allocated under Public Private Partnership (PPP) and remaining Rs 701 billon under PSDP 2019-20 for development projects.
Minister told that the federal government is focussing on less-developed areas of the country and it allocated Rs 73 billion for development of erstwhile FATA and Rs 31 billion for rehabilitation of tribal districts (FATA). He said the federal government has allocated Rs 76 billion under PSDP-2019-20 for the development projects of Balochistan, and Rs 48 billion for development projects of Rural Sindh, south Punjab and southern KP.
About Karachi, minister told that the federal government has allocated Rs 34 billion for 45 development projects of Karachi city and Rs 8 billion for Islamabad Capital Territory.
About energy and water projects, the minister said an amount of Rs 80 billion has been allocated for electricity and power projects and Rs 70 billion for water resources development projects.
Regarding agriculture sector, he said the federal government has increased allocation from Rs 1 billion to Rs 12 billion for agriculture development projects for the next fiscal year. He told that Rs 9.5 billion have been allocated for climate change, 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project and knowledge economy.
The minister told that an amount of Rs 62 billion has been allocated for development projects of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). He said Rs 43 billion have been allocated for Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Rs 10 billion for vocational training of youth.
Khusro Bakhtyar said 80 percent development funds under the PSDP-2019-20 would be utilised for 295 ongoing development projects which would be completed as soon as possible.
Answering a question, the minister said PTI is also giving importance to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects. He said work has been started on Western and Eastern Route Corridor. He told that construction work of Quetta-Zhob section of Western Corridor has been started while the construction of Sukkur to Hyderabad road of Eastern Corridor would be started on build-operate-transfer (BOT) base in this year. He said that he is not in a position to inform about the total allocation of CPEC projects as the projects are at various stages and the government is holding negotiations with China.
About ML-I Railway project, the minister told that the project would be completed in various phases. He said that preliminary design of ML-I Railway projects has been completed and "we hope that we would get financing from China."
He said a total of Rs 80 billion fund has been spent on Kachhi Canal Project and now the federal government has allocated Rs 8 billion for this project. About Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the minister said the federal government is focussing on industrial zones and has made an agreement with China on the construction of Rashakai Economic Zone.
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