There has been no appreciable increase in the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) from China under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in the current financial year 2016-17, it is learnt. Economic Affairs Division (EAD) sources revealed to Business Recorder that Pakistan has received $50.25 million from China in the first two months of current fiscal year against $209.73 million during the same period of last year. The country has budgeted $572.3 million from China for the current financial year.
Further, the government has budgeted a hefty $2.005 billion from commercial banks for 2016-17; however no amount has yet been procured under this head in the first two months of the current financial year. According to EAD, the country provisionally received over $358.5 million of budgeted estimates of foreign assistance in the current financial year (July-August) 2016-17 against $506 million during the same period of last year (2015-16).
The government has estimated foreign assistance of $7.998 billion for 2016-17 including grants and loans against $9.18 billion budgeted for 2015-16, as shown in the EAD data.
The country faced a significant shortfall of $1.83 billion in the budget estimates of foreign assistance in financial year 2015-16 as $7.348 billion ie 80 percent of the total budget estimates of $9.18 billion were received from multilateral and bilateral donors.
According to the latest figures, the country provisionally received $163.37 million including $78.23 million loans and $85.14 million grants in the month of August. Asian Development Bank (ADB) disbursed $82.19 million in the current financial year including $41.84 million in the month of August against the budgeted estimates of $1048.2 million.
IDB(S-Term) disbursed $97.84 million, USA $15.59 million, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) $17.32 million, International Development Association (IDA) $12.76 million, UNHCR $0.04 million, IDB $0.94 million and Japan $1.46 million in the current financial year. The government has received no assistance from the EU, France, Italy, South Korea, Norway, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UNDP and Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) during the period under review.