Hammad Azhar urges AIIB to scale up project financing in Pakistan

Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar says investment in social sector delivers results after ages

ISLAMABAD: While acknowledging the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)’s support for infrastructure projects in Pakistan, the minister for economic affairs has asked the bank to scale up its financing for development schemes in the country.

The remarks came in a meeting between an AIIB delegation, led by its President Jin Liqun, and Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar, who discussed support for projects in areas of power generation and transmission, transport, water supply and information technology.

The minister emphasised that loan commitments reflected the confidence the multilateral lenders had in Pakistan government’s reform agenda and the progress towards economic stabilisation, adding that the AIIB was a valuable contributor to Pakistan’s development.

“The government is fully committed to improving governance, bringing economic reforms and achieving sustainable development. It aims to put the economy on the path of sustainable and balanced growth and increase per capita income,” the minister stressed. He pointed out that the previous government focused more on infrastructure building, however, the current administration paid more attention to social development.

Azhar said the Human Development Index (HDI) was already slipping away from the country’s hands and any investment in social sector development would deliver results after ages. “We hope to see positive results in the future,” remarked the minister. Jin, while appreciating the reforms and initiatives of the government, stressed that the AIIB was one of the leading development partners of Pakistan and would further strengthen and expand the partnership.

He pointed out that the AIIB was providing support for policy reforms and project financing in key priority areas such as energy, roads, social sector, water, irrigation and urban services.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2019.

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