World Bank to offer 1.8 bln USD for Pakistan's NTC plan

The World Bank has agreed to provide 1.8 billion U.S. dollars to Pakistan for its 6 billion dollars National Trade Corridor (NTC) improvement program to meet domestic transportation requirements and provide transit facilities to Central Asia, western China, Afghanistan and Iran.

According to local newspaper Dawn reports Saturday, a World Bank team that had a meeting with Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Salman Shah committed that the bank would provide 300 million dollars a year as support to the program.

The program has been prepared through a year-long consultation process with various ministries and corporations and key international lenders including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

It covers six core areas like ports and shipping, trade facilitation, highways and trucking modernization, railway improvement and aviation and air transport modernization.

According to an official statement, Salman Shah during the meeting said Pakistan government attached high priority to the program to bring a paradigm improvement in the country's competitiveness. The program is spread over a period of six years and would be supported by other donors.

The investment plan will be fully implemented in about five years, said Asad Shah, Planning Commission's member on infrastructure.

This is estimated to save 5 billion to 7.5 billion dollars per annum to the country which is currently being lost due to low performance of railways, highways, trucking and ports and airports, he added.

"The existing infrastructure capacity cannot support 7-8 percent of sustained economic growth," said a Planning Commission report on the NTC improvement plan.

"Investments estimated at over 6 billion dollars (next five to six years) will be sequenced strategically and kick-started through high priority projects, " it said.

The plan aims at improving Pakistan's share of world trade from 0.2 percent to 1 percent by 2030 and increase Pakistan's exports from 17 billion dollars in 2006 to around 250 billion dollars by 2030.

It will "enhance regional connectivity through trade links and energy and transport corridors with China, Central Asian Republics, Afghanistan and Iran," said Shah.

Source: Xinhua