President ADB Masatsugu Asakawa reaffirms continued support to Pakistan

TBILISI, May 06 (SABAH): Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank (ADB), in his meeting with the Pakistan delegation led by Ahad Khan Cheema, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, reaffirmed ADB’s continued support to Pakistan.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 57th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors. President ADB reposed his trust in Pakistan’s reform agenda and appreciated the required tough stabilization measures taken by the Government to bring about macroeconomic stability in the country. President ADB assured Pakistan of its continued support in the areas of Public Private Partnership, climate and disaster resilience enhancement, Domestic Resource Mobilization, promoting Women Inclusive Finance and Energy Sector reforms. The ADB Annual Meeting brings together senior leadership from the member countries to discuss the emerging issues of global concern including food security, climate change and dealing with external shocks. The central theme of the 57th meeting is “Bridge to the Future”.

While appreciating ADB’s long-standing and generous support to Pakistan, Minister Ahad Cheema briefed the President on a series of reforms introduced by the Government. The key reforms include enhancing tax revenues, improving financial sustainability of energy sector, reduction in untargeted subsides and scaling up social protection. Minister Ahad Cheema appreciated ADB’s ongoing institutional and capital reforms, successful completion of the Capital Adequacy Framework review and unlocking of $ 100 billion in additional financing over next 10 years to support developing member countries. He urged ADB to deploy the additional resources towards high impact interventions including climate actions ion the most vulnerable countries.

Ahad Khan Cheema on behalf of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, extended invitation to President ADB to visit Pakistan which he accepted. Earlier, speaking during the business session of the ADB’s Board of Governors, Ahad Cheema highlighted Government of Pakistan’s firm commitment to wide-ranging program to unlock Pakistan’s economic growth potential. As a result of the reforms, “the economy is now on the consolidation path with improvements in inflation and some recovery of economic growth”, stated the Minister. He underscored the need for ADB’s stronger support in the areas of climate change, domestic resource mobilization, human capital development and food security.

Ahad Cheema also held meetings with the senior leadership of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and European Investment Bank to discuss their ongoing development portfolios in Pakistan and priority areas for future support. He also held meetings with bilateral development partners including the United Kingdom, Germany and USA to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in key priority areas of the Government of Pakistan including end to end digitalization of taxation system, energy infrastructure and climate change.