Islamabad:
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said Pakistan could not prepare investment projects to exploit $ 11 billion, pledged by foreign lenders during the Geneva Conference almost three years ago. This inability has led to the gap between the government’s need for foreign aid and its ability to use it effectively.
“Let’s accept that we couldn’t come up with investable projects to take advantage of billions of dollars, pledged in Geneva,” Aurangzeb said while talking at a conference in Islamabad on Wednesday.
He questioned whether state institutions had learned something from the devastating floods of 2022 and to two existential threats – climate change and rapidly growing population. The floods of 2022 caused $ 30 billion compensation.
Aurangzeb noted that Pakistan is once again facing billions of dollars in injuries’ from the ongoing floods. His comments came a day after the Ministry of Economic Affairs informed the Committee on Public Accounts that out of $ 6.4 billion in project financing -only $ 2.8 billion was actually paid.
Overall, foreign lenders had promised $ 11 billion – including $ 4.6 billion for oil financing and $ 6.4 billion for rehabilitation and reconstruction – but payouts remained limited due to the absence of credible projects.
The official data shows that the World Bank promised $ 2.2 billion and has so far paid out $ 1.6 billion. The Asian Development Bank committed $ 1.6 billion, but has only released $ 513 million. Likewise, China and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) promised $ 1.1 billion, but expanded only $ 250 million.
The Islamic Development Bank promised to give $ 600 million but released $ 231 million. The Paris Club countries promised nearly $ 800 million but released $ 139 million. The United States promised to give $ 100 million and gave $ 70 million.
Meanwhile, heavy rain in the top drainage of the Chenab River has raised downstream streams, causing the Ministry of Water Resource Ministry to issue a flood alarm for sutlej, ravi and chenab rivers.
Aurangzeb emphasized that unless Pakistan tackles population growth and climate change, it cannot hope to become a $ 3 trillion economy in 2047, its centenary years.
