This is a significant vote of confidence in Pakistan’s road and transporation development plans, which has already produced great achievments in the last 6 years.
Pakistan Attracts $1.5 Billion World Bank Support For Transport Plan
Pakistan’s $6-billion plan to improve its transport infrastructure will receive $1.5 billion worth of project loans from the World Bank over the next five to seven years. “The chief objective (of the plan) is to lower the losses in trade and transport logistics of Pakistan, losses worth up to 4%-6% of the country’s GDP,” Amir Durrani, the World Bank’s senior transport sector specialist, said yesterday. The Asian Development Bank has already said it will lend another $1.1 billion. The project, called the National Trade Corridor Plan, is yet to be formally launched. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz heads a committee that meets monthly to review progress and assign work to agencies.** The plan aims to reduce bottlenecks in highways, railways, civil aviation, ports and shipping, trucking and trade facilitation sectors, resulting in estimated savings of $5 billion a year. Ports, roads and railways along the corridor, which runs from ports in the south to industrial bases and trading partners in the north and north-west, handle 95% of the country’s external trade, valued at $41.56 billion in fiscal year ended June 30, 2006. **Poorly managed freight forwarding, high port costs, delays at customs, relatively shallow draft in ports and poorly managed roads are among the problems the project aims to deal with. Besides the World Bank and the ADB, private investors and the government are also helping with funds.
According to a World Bank document, $1 billion of this the $1.5 billion money will be spent from 2006-2010 on building and reconstructing 9,600 kilometers of roads, with the remainder being spent on customs reforms, port handling and other areas. It is initially providing $360 million to construct 200km of expressways. The ADB’s $1.1 billion will go toward highway building and reconstruction, and for technical support for port management, according to a document outlining the government’s plans. It will also lend $600 million to help attract private investment in the power, transport and water subsectors, according to an ADB statement issued in November last year. Including the transport infrastructure projects, the World Bank is implementing 18 projects in Pakistan in the current fiscal year, with a net commitment of $1.1 billion.