Track record: EIB’s continued support to Pakistan

European bank has provided around €223.6 million for 5 energy projects.

ISLAMABAD: The European Investment Bank (EIB) has financed around €223.6 million for Pakistan’s five energy and power projects since 1995 following a framework agreement between the bank and the Pakistani government in 1994.

According to official documents, EIB started financing activities in Asia in 1993 and has granted loans worth more than €5.1 billion for projects in Asia, of which €223.6 million have been in Pakistan, making the country the fourth largest recipient country in Asia after China, India and Vietnam.

The recent declaratory statement for €100 million for co-financing of the 128 megawatt (MW) Keyal Khwar Hydropower Project in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) was also signed last month between the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) and EIB.

The Keyal Khwar project, which is scheduled to be completed in four years, will be built in the Dasu district of K-P on the right tributary of the Indus river. Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) will implement the project. The project consists of a 128 MW run-of-river hydropower plant with a small 1.5 hectare reservoir for daily regulation.

The EIB provided €35 million in 2006 for the DG Khan Cement Project that envisaged construction and operation of a cement plant on a greenfield site.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2014.

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