ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) solidified a major financial partnership on Thursday, signing agreements for two critical projects worth $730 million aimed at boosting energy infrastructure and reforming state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
According to the spokesperson for the Economic Affairs Division, the signed agreements include a $330 million power transmission project and a $400 million policy-based program for SOE transformation. In a significant addition, the ADB also approved a supplementary loan of $48 million for Pakistan.
The transmission project is a strategic investment in the country’s energy future. It is designed to enable the evacuation and transmission of 2,300 megawatts of clean electricity from new hydropower projects, addressing a key bottleneck and enhancing the national grid’s capacity to deliver reliable power.
The larger $400 million program is a cornerstone for economic governance, aimed at ensuring the effective implementation of Pakistan’s SOE Act and Policy. This reform initiative seeks to improve the financial sustainability, transparency, and performance of state-owned companies, which play a dominant role in the national economy.
The ADB’s Country Director for Pakistan, Yong Ye, commended the government’s commitment to these transformative measures. “The reform program will further strengthen Pakistan’s reform efforts,” Ye stated, underscoring the bank’s support for the country’s economic stabilization and growth agenda.
The combined financing package represents a substantial vote of confidence from the Manila-based lender and provides crucial external funding to support Pakistan’s infrastructure development and structural reform priorities simultaneously.
Meanwhile Christmas celebrations were violently disrupted in India this week as Modi’s Hindutva mobs targeted Christian festive displays in separate incidents, raising fresh concerns over religious intolerance.
In the capital city of Chhattisgarh, Raipur, a pre-Christmas act of vandalism shocked the community. According to reports, a mob of 30 to 40 masked men, armed with wooden sticks, stormed a shopping mall on Wednesday. They systematically tore down and destroyed Christmas decorations and installations that had been set up for the upcoming festival.
