Re: Pakistan’s forex reserves exceed $16 billion
From news below:
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Nevertheless, most of those pledged dollars did not materialise, that include soft loans and grants that did not materialised. As for most pledged soft loans Pakistan has not used them all yet as Pakistan is taking them from those that pledged as need arises (some loans have high interest rates and Pakistan do not intend to take them).
World Bank pledged $1000 million dollars (lona)
Asian development bank pledged $1000 million dollars (loan)
International Monetary Fund (IMF) pledged $375 million dollars (loan)
Islamic Development Bank pledged $501 million dollars (loan)
[Hence 4 above institutions pledged aid of 2.876 billion dollars loan (out of 3.9 billion loan pledges)]
Saudia Arabia pledged $573 million dollars. What I know, Saudi Arabia pledge consisted of loan and grants (grants in the form of Tents, other goods, cost of labour and sending goods to Pakistan (together making $573 million dollars).
USA** pledged $510 million dollars.** $300 million dollars of that $510 million dollars was loan whereas rest ($210 million dollars) were in the form of good and services [that includes military helicopter (including cost of one helicopter that got destroyed), medical units, medicines, and cost of personals (wages that USA paid to their workers while giving their earthquake related services).
China** gave $316 million dollars.** That includes loans, goods (grants) and services (grants: that is cost of personals that worked in earth quake relief).
Iran** gave $200 million dollars.** That was grants in the form of medical units and other service costs (what I know, this grant came during earlier days of earth quake in the form of medical units, medicine and relief work).
Turkey** gave $150 million dollars.** That was grants in the form of medical units and other service costs (what I know, this grant came during earlier days of earth quake in the form of medical units, medicine and relief work).
[What I know, in above figures, apart of Iran and Turkey whose contribution were grants (in the form of goods and services … like medical units and rescue teams) most others contributed mixture of loans and grants]
Rest of the world contributed smaller amounts (mostly in the form of goods and services, especially foods, clothing, medical units, and medicines).
[India I believe contributed $25 million dollars in the form of goods (as grants)]
Note: Situation of aid at one point was such that United Nation and International aid agencies were worried that if aid did not come they would have to stop relief operations (using helicopters to survive aid to survivors in mountainous regions) because there would be no money to do so.
From news 1
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The United Nations and international aid agencies have said their relief operations, which mainly involve using helicopters to supply aid to survivors in mountainous regions, may be halted unless more aid is received.
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Please read: both News and article given below:
News 1:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=amvXfhjWGms0&refer=asia](http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=amvXfhjWGms0&refer=asia)
Pakistan’s Earthquake Aid Pledges Reach $5.8 Billion, Aziz Says:
Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) – International donors pledged $5.8 billion to help the country rebuild after last month’s earthquake that devastated the northern region killing more than 73,000 people and leaving 3.3 million homeless.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz announced the figure after the government said earlier it received pledges totaling $5.4 billion at an international donors’ conference in the capital, Islamabad, held on Nov. 19.
Aziz said $3.9 billion is in loans with low interest rates and the remaining funds are in donations. Pakistan needs $3.5 for reconstruction and $1.7 billion for relief and rehabilitation, he said.
The United Nations and international aid agencies have said their relief operations, which mainly involve using helicopters to supply aid to survivors in mountainous regions, may be halted unless more aid is received. The United Nations said last week less than 30 percent of the $550 million it requested in emergency aid has been provided.
The magnitude 7.6 quake struck the northern Himalayan territory of Kashmir on Oct. 8, leaving 73,380 people dead in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and the North West Frontier province, according to the government. As many as 1,300 people in the Indian-run part of the region.
Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf sought $5.2 billion from international donors at the Islamabad conference.
**The Washington-based World Bank and Manila-based Asian Development Bank each promised $1 billion in loans. The International Monetary Fund pledged $375 million. **
Donor Countries **
Saudi Arabia was among biggest donor countries with a pledge of $573 million. The U.S. pledged $510 million, Saudi Arabia- based Islamic Development Bank $501 million, China $316 million and Iran $200 million, according to Aziz. **
Difficulties in reaching survivors in the world’s most mountainous region prompted India and Pakistan to open five crossing points along the Kashmir border this month, allowing the movement of aid and helping divided families meet.
Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan, has been the cause of three wars between the two countries since independence in 1947. The two nuclear-armed neighbors have been seeking to ease tensions since April 2003 after coming close to a fourth war the previous year.
Musharraf, 62, used the conference to ask India to help resolve the conflict over Kashmir.
``I urge the Indian government, the people of India and media of both countries to help resolve this dispute once and for all,‘’ Musharraf said.
Debris, Waste
The reconstruction operation will have to clear large quantities of debris and waste, Shafqat Kakakhel, a member of the UN Environment Program, said yesterday in Pakistan, according to the British Broadcasting Corp.
``Otherwise, a lot of waste can turn toxic, can degenerate into toxic material, thereby posing serious challenges to health,‘’ Kakakhel said. Leakages from pesticide and petrol stores may contaminate water sources, he said.
Pakistan’s government intends to increase supplies of liquefied petroleum gas to reduce dependence on wood for energy among communities in the region, the BBC cited Pakistan’s Environment Minister Tahir Iqbal as saying yesterday.
Areas where forests were cut down were the worst-hit by the quake, Iqbal said.
It was the landslides which wiped villages off the face of the earth,'' Iqbal said, according to the BBC. Areas where there were forests, landslides did not occur. Where the forests were depleted, whole mountains have just vanished.‘’
To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad, Pakistan at [email protected] ; Paul Tighe in Sydney at [email protected]
Last Updated: November 20, 2005 19:15 EST
News 2:
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/11/20/quake_aid_pledges_rise_to_58_billion/](http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/11/20/quake_aid_pledges_rise_to_58_billion/)
Quake aid pledges rise to $5.8 billion
Pakistan welcomes nations’ help as harsh winter nears****
By Zeeshan Haider, Reuters | November 20, 2005
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The world boosted aid pledges for quake-devastated Pakistan to $5.8 billion yesterday after the United Nations warned there could be a second disaster as survivors face the bitter Himalayan winter.
The sum exceeds Pakistan’s target of $5.2 billion for recovery and reconstruction after the earthquake, which killed more than 73,000 and left hundreds of thousands homeless.
''The results were better than expected . . . We have received pledges worth $5.827 billion," Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said at a news conference after an international donors meeting in Islamabad.
Pakistan had been about $3 billion short of what it needs to rebuild houses, schools, hospitals, water and energy supplies, roads, and civic administration.
Aziz said $3.9 billion of the aid pledged was in soft loans, and $1.9 billion was in grants.
The new pledges were made after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that survivors would die unless relief funds came soon.
''The pitiless Himalayan winter is almost upon us and growing more and more severe every week," Annan said at the conference on Friday, which opened with harrowing videos of quake damage and survivors.
''We must sustain our efforts to keep people as healthy and as strong as possible until we can rebuild," he told representatives from about 50 donor countries.
General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, praised old rival India for its help and appealed to it to seize the opportunity the quake had given the two countries to resolve their dispute over Kashmir, the region hit hardest by the quake.
''Let us together solve the Kashmir dispute once and for all," Musharraf said.
The Oct. 8 quake left 500,000 homeless and affected 3.3 million in Pakistani Kashmir and North West Frontier Province. About 1,300 people were killed on the Indian side of Kashmir.
Rich nations and multilateral lenders pledged the lion’s share of the extra aid, and even impoverished countries such as Afghanistan and Bangladesh made contributions.
Thanking donors, Musharraf said it was now the turn of Pakistanis, at home and abroad, to ensure aid needs were fulfilled.
''I know that we are going to spend about $6 billion," he said. ''Now that is a shortfall which we will make through government efforts, and this is where I feel the people of Pakistan . . . need to come forward."
Musharraf told the conference of a ''lost generation," referring to how the quake destroyed schools, entombing classrooms. The quake killed an estimated 35,000 children.
Also, 400,000 homes and more than 10,000 schools need to be rebuilt, he said.
Article: On Aid to Pakistan related to earthquake:
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/2259/1/132/
Recycling Human Misery: Aid & the Pakistan Earthquake
Muhammed Asadi
11-25-05,9:18am
At the International Donors Conference held on Saturday 11/19/’05 in Islamabad, Pakistan (Dawn 11/20/’05), international donors pledged $5.8 billion for earthquake victims. Raw figures become easy propaganda tools, used for deceiving the masses, well manipulated by those in command of the apparatus of public relations, even though the reality of this feigned “sincerity” is much different. Historical and comparative analysis can reveal a clearer picture: Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey together have pledged $ 923 million while USA, UK and Japan (the wealthy trio) together have pledged $ 750 million (as a percentage of GDP, the U.S. amount comes to a minuscule figure compared to that pledged by a much poorer country like Iran). With history as a guide, particularly the on-going Iraq war and what the U.S. is “pledging” over there, we can be sure that most of these promises of funds, made by the U.S., will never materialize. Out of the $5.8 billion pledged by the world to Pakistan, only $1.9 billion are grants, the rest are loans that will plunge the country into further debt and impoverish the people, even as finance charges, that become profits of banks in the developed world, take a larger chunk out of the poor country’s budget (which as is allocates very little for social services).*