Despite stark opposition from India, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced a $800 million financing package for Pakistan under the “Improved Resource Mobilisation and Utilisation Reform” programme.
The package “includes a policy-based loan of $300 million, and ADB’s first ever policy-based guarantee of up to $500 million, which is expected to mobilise financing of up to $1 billion from commercial banks,” stated the lender in an official statement.
This came two days after ADB President Masato Kanda announced a 5-year $10 billion initiative “aimed at transforming urban infrastructure across India.”
Kanda recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the initiative based around the centre’s Urban Challenge Fund (UCF). “ADB will mobilise capital, accelerate delivery, and scale solutions that keep India’s urban economy moving and people thriving on the road to Viksit Bharat @ 2047,” he then said.
Despite assurances, the $800 million financial package announced by ADB would be a sore point, especially when it came on the same day the all-party delegation led by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor reached Washington, D.C., to meet with US officials, lawmakers and policy experts in a bid to highlight Pakistan’s links to terrorism.
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The delegation includes Sarfaraz Ahmad, Ganti Harish Madhur Balayogi, Shashank Mani Tripathi, Bhubaneswar Kalita, Milind Deora, Tejasvi Surya, and India’s former Ambassador to the US Taranjit Sandhu.
ADB Country Director for Pakistan Emma Fan cited Pakistan’s “significant progress in improving macroeconomic conditions” for the $800 million funding from the Philippines-based lender.
Last month, despite India’s objections, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a loan of $1 billion to Pakistan. India is also actively building a case against Pakistan with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), effectively looking to cut them off of more funds from the World Bank, citing Islamabad’s support in funding terror infrastructure.
