Ministry submits details of Geneva pledges

The Ministry of Economic Affairs on Monday presented the details of the grants and loans that different countries and financial institutions pledged to provide Pakistan in order to help it recover from the devastating floods of 2022.

According to earlier reports, international donors on January 9 committed over $9 billion, exceeding Pakistan’s external financing goals and paving the way for a new model on raising funds to fight climate disasters in poorer countries.

Officials from some 40 countries as well as private donors and international financial institutions gathered at a meeting in Geneva as Islamabad sought funds to cover around half of a recovery bill amounting to $16.3 billion.

However, a reply submitted to the National Assembly by the ministry showed that international lenders and governments pledged over $10.953 billion at the donor conference in Geneva.

It said $10.330 billion of the amount is received as loan while $550.4m is received as grant.

According to the ministry, the World Bank pledged a loan of $2.1999 billion; the Asian Development Bank pledged a loan of $1.544 billion and a grant of $13.28 million.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank pledged a loan of $1.000 billion; the Islamic Development Bank pledged a loan of $4.200 billion while the United Nations pledged a loan of $5.5m; Saudi Arabia pledged an amount of $1 billion; France pledged am amount of $370m; Australia, $6.6m; European Union, $94.5m; China, $100m; US, $100m; UK, $11.7m; Denmark, $3.79m; Italy, $24.9m, Germany, $91.1m; Japan, $77m; Norway, $18.12m; Canada $18.21m and Azerbaijan, $2m. South Korea pledged a loan of $48m; Qatar, $25m while Vietnam pledged a loan of $0.1m.

It said the mandate of the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) is limited to arranging the funds.

The ministry said the funds fall under the purview of different stakeholders including the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), the Ministry of Planning and different executing agencies.