ISLAMABAD: Four-day annual meeting of Asian Development Bank (ADB) will start from Saturday in Baku, Azerbaijan and will continue till May 6.
ADB Annual meeting will focus on partnership for development
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar is likely to leave for Baku a well placed official source told his scribe here on Thursday.
About 3,000 government officials, business leaders, investors, journalists, and representatives from civil society will gather for ADB’s 48th Annual Meeting of its Board of Governors. ADB Secretary WooChong Um outlines what to expect from the 48th Annual Meeting of the ADB Board of Governors.
As one of the largest forums in the Asia Pacific region, the ADB Annual Meeting is packed with events and activities which could be overwhelming for first time participants. This publication provides a brief overview of the meeting and a snapshot of events occurring over the four day meeting period.
The source said that Dar would press on ADB for provision of facility of concessional loans to Pakistan which would not only be used for repayment of the existing loans as well as to make up budgetary shortfall.
He would discuss progress on the work of the World Bank Group and the IMF meetings of the joint Development Committee and the IMF’s International Monetary and Financial Committee with concerned authorities.
Pakistan will try to get concessional loans through an effective and active participation in the Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank meetings.
Finance Minister is likely to convince ADB on his stance because ABD Country Head Werner Liepach has indicated ADB’s satisfaction over co-operation being extended by the Government agencies in terms of damage estimates and relief efforts.
In a recent meeting with Finance Minister” Werner Liepach highlighted economic rating of Pakistan by International agencies was getting better; ADB was identifying additional options to help Pakistan in achieving development targets.
He would like to give a detailed presentation to the Minister on different schemes ADB had in mind that could help Pakistan in its development and uplift. ADB was also on track on Jamshoro coal fired energy project and the allocated funds for the project would be timely released.
ADB was interested in helping Pakistan in energy sector projects and the plan to get extra allocations approved for the energy sector was the priority of the ADB team.
