Pakistan seeks $26bn investment in 35 UNDP-backed projects

Pakistan on Tuesday sought global investment worth $26 billion in 35 projects prepared with the support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), aiming to eliminate poverty, protect the earth, and bring peace and health to all people by the year 2030.

“Working with the federal and provincial governments, UNDP’s SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals] Plus Programme has helped prepare 35 projects across nine sectors, worth around $26 billion in potential investment,” said UNDP Pakistan’s Deputy Resident Representative Van Nguyen.

She was speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day conference and exhibition titled ‘National SDGs Investment Fair - Investing in Pakistan’s Sustainable Future’.

Federal and provincial governments set up their stalls at the fair that disseminated information about their respective projects in the sectors including agriculture, food, energy, transport, water, waste, tourism, and road infrastructures.

The United Nations set up 17 global goals (SDGs) in 2015, aiming to end poverty, protect the earth, and bring peace and health to all people by the year 2030.

Nguyen said: “Pakistan’s SDG financing gap, the difference between what is needed and what is currently available, is estimated at around 16% of the economy’s annual output [Pakistan GDP calculated at $410 billion in FY26]. At a time when public finances are tight and development assistance is becoming more constrained, public money alone cannot close that gap”.

“Pakistan’s government should not simply tell investors about its investment requirement. Rather, it should show investors what Pakistan can offer [like return on investment]. And investors should not simply tell Pakistan what risks they see. They should help articulate what would make those risks manageable.”

That is where, she believes, UNDP can play a useful role, helping bring those perspectives together and helping turn development priorities into opportunities that investors can properly assess.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb in a virtual address said the country’s economy had stabilised over the past three years, achieving the “basic hygiene” needed to create a conducive investment climate.

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves, held by the State Bank of Pakistan, hit an all-time high of $21.4 billion a couple of weeks ago, he noted, meeting the international benchmark of three months’ import cover, compared with just two weeks’ cover around three years ago.

“So pitch those projects with the requisite confidence that we have the basic hygiene which is being recognised at the local level and at the international level,” he said.

The minister recalled that Pakistan was among the first six countries to sign the Climate Implementation Bridge (BRIDGE) at COP31 during New York Climate Week, aiming to translate their climate commitment into finance-ready projects. The focus, he said, was on moving BRIDGE “from design into implementation and operational effectiveness.”

Pakistan, Aurangzeb added, needed to build its capacity to design and implement investable and bankable projects, as well as to structure, report and monitor them “as we go forward in line with international standards. And as we go into the BRIDGE”.

“Pakistan certainly needs help with the capacity-building aspect of BRIDGE. Where other countries which have done well or better than we have, you know, we would certainly look for that help and support in the context of the BRIDGE, because the BRIDGE is now going to be from what and why [part] to the how and who [part]. And I think that’s what I understand this workshop is all about,” the minister said.