Govt keen for AIIB finance in infrastructure, climate change

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday expressed hope that the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) would enhance its financing for climate change, provision of infrastructure for cities, and water and sanitation in months and years ahead.

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar, while addressing the AIIB annual meeting through a video link at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, commended the COVID-19 Crisis Response Facility of AIIB, which was announced to support economies of member countries. “The pandemic has caused severe disruptions in the global economic system; stressed the health infrastructure, and social distress. The impact is more pronounced in case of emerging markets and developing countries. I wish an early end to the pandemic and recovery of the global economy,” he said.

Appreciating the bank for the successfully arranging the meeting despite the pandemic, Bakhtyar urged the AIIB to take a lead in technological and information technology related infrastructure in the short- to medium-term horizon, particularly in sectors like education, health and ICT in post-COVID times.

He also expressed hoped that AIIB would enhance climate financing and provision of primary physical infrastructure for cities, water and sanitation, and rural connectivity with cities for developing countries.

The federal minister mentioned that the development of basic infrastructure in countries within Asia and beyond had remained a priority for the bank. “Because of disruptions due to the pandemic, fiscal space declined even further with rising domestic spending and exchange rate movements against the US dollar in the Asian countries,” he lamented. “In this situation infrastructure financing could only be sustained by MDBs (multilateral development banks), including AIIB; and by leveraging on PPP (public-private partnership) potential as we know that building a robust PPP regime remained a challenge for many countries,” the federal minister added.