Government mulling benefiting from World Bank's DLI mode of financing

Pakistan is considering benefiting from World Bank Disbursement Link Indicators (DLI) mode of financing in the wake of discontinuation of budgetary support (programme lending) by multilateral and bilateral donors subsequent to suspension of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Stand-By-Arrangement, it was reliably learnt.
Source said that DLI mode of financing by the WB is a combination of project and programme financing. The releases under DLI mode are made upon the implementation of agreed indicators, they added. The DLI mode of financing would be requested from the WB for Punjab, Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa education sectors projects as well as for the projects of resource mobilisation and power sector projects. Revenue mobilisation project is expected to be around $300 million from World Bank.
Under Kerry-Lugar Bill (KLB), only $645 million has been disbursed since 2010 instead of the 1.5 billion dollars per annum as envisaged in the bill. To a question about disbursement of commitments at the Friends of Democratic Forum (FoDP) Tokyo Conference, sources said commitments for projects are being disbursed and $717 million worth of projects are being implemented with funding from Japan that pledged $1 billion. France had committed $300 million at Tokyo Conference and $150 million projects are already under execution in Pakistan and a further $50 million project signing is expected to take place soon. Similarly, Saudi Arabia had committed $700 million and some projects are underway from that pledge. Similarly, other donors are also implementing projects especially those pledged at FoDP.
Official sources said that Pakistan and the US have a US $161 million agreement for construction of roads in Federally Administered Areas (FATA) and this government to government project would be implemented by USAID. The World Bank website notes that DLI is still at the proposal stage and envisages support to member countries based on achievement of verifiable results and performance indicators.
It is relevant to note that it was lack of achievement of verifiable results and performance indicators that was responsible for the suspension of the IMF's SBA. Analysts informed this correspondent that the likelihood of the World Bank releasing DLI to Pakistan remains small subsequent to the report on IMF's recent Article IV consultations.