ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed an agreement with Pakistan to support privatisation plan of the country and monitor transactions to confirm transparency.
Pakistan under the ongoing IMF programme for getting $6.67 billion is struggling to implement the idea of finding strategic partnership for resolving the problem of cash bleeding public sector enterprises which consume over Rs500 billion losses at the cost of taxpayers money. The government is going to privatise PIA, Pakistan Steel Mills and cash-starved power sector in the months ahead. So far the government had offloaded shares of banks in order to improve its liquidity crunch after assuming reins of power.However, the decision to offload share of OGDCL-related transaction was canceled at the last moment after receiving low offers mainly because of decline in oil prices in international market and political instability the country faced in the aftermath of PTI-led sit in politics during last few months.
According to ADB’s announcement made here, the ADB and the government of Pakistan signed an agreement to invest $20 million to improve corporate governance, technical capacity and regulatory framework of Pakistan’s privatisation programme.It will also assist the Privatisation Commission in preparing a privatisation strategy and monitor the transaction.
To ensure transparency for executing privatisation programme, the sources said, remained problematic area in Pakistan so far and there is need to ensure transparency in future proceeds, said the official sources.
