With International Finance Corporation's (IFC's) matching grant of some Rs 90 million and seven Pakistan private sector companies' Rs 240 million subscriptions, a total of Rs 330 million has been mobilised for earthquake relief.
This was stated by Michel Essex, Acting Director-General, International Finance Corporation (IFC), in a press briefing here on Tuesday. He said that the Pakistan's companies were using their resources to provide shelter, water, medical services, communication and transportation facilities to assist the affected communities.
He said that Pakistan's private sector companies have been very active in supporting the victims of the October 8, 2005 earthquake through a wide range of relief efforts.
The private sector companies have proven to be quite efficient at getting supplies and services to the affected areas, he said, adding that they have been responding rapidly to emergency needs and have been complementing the other channels of emergency aid funding.
IFC has partnered with seven companies to help fund some of the expenses they have been incurring for relief efforts. Many of the companies are current clients or former clients of IFC.
The matching programme from the IFC, along with resources provided by the companies, is targeted at alleviating infrastructure and distribution bottlenecks for relief operations and for providing emergency shelter, health services and clean water.
Under the Matching Grant Programme, IFC matches eligible expenses incurred by private sector companies on relief activities and, as a result, the companies have contributed more resources to the relief effort than they originally planned.
The companies involved in this programme of earthquake relief with IFC are Dewan Group, Packages Limited, House of Habib, Liaqat National Hospital, Sui Southern Gas Company, Pakistan Petroleum Limited and Orix Leasing.