Tha Asian Development Bank (ADB) has so far given the green light to provide Pakistan with about one billion dollars (648 million euros) in loans this year, a senior bank official said Sunday in Spain.
"These are not new loans, they are disbursements on existing loans," Juan Miranda, ADB's Director General for Central West Asia, told AFP on the sidelines of the bank's annual meeting in Madrid.
"We are looking in addition to new projects for the fiscal year of 2008, they include projects in the road sector, energy sector, urban sector but these are under discussion and we don't have any details yet," he added. Pakistan was the ADB's biggest borrower in 2007, receiving two billion dollars, or 20 percent of total loans extended by the bank that year.
"Pakistan is a country that has a strategic importance for all of us. It has a lot of things which it wants to do and we have a strategy to help them do it," said Miranda. The roughly one billion dollars in loans approved so far for 2008 refer to the second tranche of loans agreed upon over the past two years. They were given the go-ahead after the ADB verified that Pakistan had carried out the reforms, which were a condition for the loans, said Miranda. "They are delivering on what they promised, so when they do that we deliver on what we promise," he said.
The loans include 200 million dollars to improve access to financial services, 200 million dollars to help develop capital markets and another 200 million dollars for reconstruction efforts following a deadly 2005 earthquake.
Another 62 million dollars will go towards aiding small to medium industries while between 300 and 350 million dollars has been or will be dispersed on projects to develop roads, energy and urban services, Miranda said. Last year the Manila-based ADB said it expected to provide at least six billion dollars in loans and grants to Pakistan in the 2008-2010 period.
Miranda praised the new Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani which came to power following general elections in February, saying it was "serious, committed and has a smart economic team, both in the ministry of finance and the central bank."
Established in 1966, the ADB is owned by its 67 member countries - 48 from the Asia-Pacific region, and 19 from elsewhere around the world. It approved 10.1 billion dollars in loans last year.