Assistance: ADB to invest $20m in privatisation programme

Project will ensure efficiency gains in PSEs, cut economic and fiscal costs

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the government of Pakistan on Tuesday signed an agreement to invest $20 million in improving corporate governance, technical capacity and regulatory framework of Pakistan’s privatisation programme.

ADB Country Director Dr Werner E Liepach and Economic Affairs Division (EAD) Secretary Mohammad Saleem Sethi signed the loan agreement.

Liepach said the project will finance management and financial consulting services to develop the capacity of the Ministry of Finance to monitor the public sector enterprise (PSE) portfolio, assess fiscal liabilities, identify and track potential issues and oversee corporate restructuring of selected PSEs.

“It will also strengthen the process by improving corporate governance and management capacity of selected PSEs, and strengthen governance and regulations in selected sectors dominated by PSEs,” he said.



PSEs account for about 10% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and thus comprise a major share of the country’s economy. Weak corporate governance and management issues have been resulting in their poor service delivery and bleeding of the country’s scarce financial resources with taxpayers ultimately bearing the brunt of these inefficiencies.

The project seeks improvement of the governance and regulatory regime to ensure that efficiency gains in PSEs are in line with the interest of general public and consumers. The assistance will help improve financial control and reporting through improved inter-agency coordination and online monitoring system at the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).

It will also assist the Privatisation Commission in preparing a strategy and monitoring the sell-off transaction.

“The expected impact would reduce fiscal and economic costs through improved management and governance of Pakistan’s public sector enterprises,” Liepach added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2015.

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