PHOTO: REUTERS
Minister for Economic Affairs Muhammad Hammad Azhar witnessed the signing ceremony for five projects worth $787 million with the World Bank, according to a statement issued by the Economic Affairs Division (EAD).
The World Bank financing has been secured to support projects of urban mobility, urban management and service delivery, improving water and sewerage services, tourism and power sectors, it added. An agreement worth $382 million was signed for the Karachi Mobility Yellow Line project. The objective of the project is to improve mobility, accessibility and safety along the Yellow Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor in Karachi.
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The project will help develop urban road infrastructure (Yellow Corridor), rehabilitate or reconstruct road infrastructure along the corridor, develop and operationalise a BRT system and capacity building.
Both the parties also inked an agreement worth $40 million for the Karachi Water and Sewerage Services Improvement project. The project is aimed at improving access to safe water services in Karachi and increasing Karachi Water and Sewerage Board’s (KWSB) financial and operational performance.
The project is the first in a proposed series of projects that form a long-term programme to address the serious WASH service gaps in the rapidly growing Karachi.
The third loan agreement of $230 million was signed for the Competitive and Liveable City of Karachi project. The project objective is to improve the performance of Karachi local councils and agencies in urban management, financing and service delivery; and to improve the business environment for private-sector development in Karachi.
The project will help address the challenges of urban management service delivery and business environment being faced by Karachi by selectively tackling critical bottlenecks.
Pakistan and the World Bank also signed the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Integrated Tourism Development project worth $70 million. Objectives of the project are to improve tourism-enabling infrastructure, develop tourism assets and strengthen management for sustainable tourism development in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The World Bank also gave additional financing of $65 million for the Central Asia-South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade (Casa-1000) project. The objective of the ongoing project is to create conditions for sustainable trade in 1,300 megawatts of electricity between Central Asian countries (Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic) and South Asian states (Pakistan - 1,000MW and Afghanistan -300MW).
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The minister for economic affairs highlighted that the signing of five projects worth $787 million indicated the resolve of the World Bank to support the development agenda of the government.
While appreciating the reform initiatives of the government, World Bank Country Director Patchamuthu Illangovan committed to extending possible support and facilitation to the government to help put the economy back on track.
EAD Secretary Noor Ahmed signed the loan agreements on behalf of the government of Pakistan. The World Bank country director signed the agreements on behalf of the bank.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2019.
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