Pakistan 5th largest recipient of ADB loans, grants

ISLAMABAD: With meager grants of just $5.5 million, Pakistan has become the fifth largest recipient of loans and grants from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as the total disbursement stood at $1.8 billion in 2023.

If the co-financing is also included, the total disbursement climbs up to $2.353 billion for 2023. The annual report for 2023 released on Thursday stated that food insecurity remained a major challenge, with vulnerable communities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sri Lanka among the most affected. At COP28, the ADB announced technical assistance to help selected DMCs, including Cambodia and Pakistan, understand how the heat stress affects women and men differently, particularly in the workplace.

In Pakistan, the bank is providing about 28,000 women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with training on the safe handling of pesticides and fertilizers, seed cleaning and storage practices.

In 2023, the ADB for the first-time committed policy-based loans focusing on domestic resource mobilization in Pakistan and the Philippines. In Pakistan, the bank is helping improve tax administration and raise domestic and international non-debt resources, while also integrating potential impacts of climate-related disasters into the government’s fiscal risk management framework.

In Pakistan, the ADB signed an $82 million loan to improve agricultural productivity and food security in the flood-affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

To help achieve environmental sustainability and climate resilience in Pakistan’s power sector, the ADB signed a $250 million loan for power transmission strengthening in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. The project aims to expand the national grid and enhance grid stability to improve energy access in the country. Upgrades under the project are expected to help supply 2 gigawatts of additional clean peak power and avoid about 13,700 tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year.

The ADB signed a loan of $180 million to help develop climate-resilient and low-carbon municipal services for up to 1.5 million residents in the Punjab cities of Bahawalpur and Rawalpindi.

The ADB signed an emergency grant of $5 million, financed by the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific, to top up its flood assistance of $475 million from 2022. The grant supports farming households, including those headed by women, in the most flood-impacted areas of Balochistan.

The ADB provided a $300 million policy-based loan that will strengthen the government’s capacity to generate domestic revenues to reduce budgetary constraints and restore macroeconomic stability. Under the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program, the ADB committed $360 million to help upgrade 330 kilometers of the national highway in Pakistan. To guide environmental governance, the ADB hosted more than 100 judges, policymakers and scientists at a 3-day symposium in Nepal to consider forestry and protected area legislation and law enforcement.