EAD, World Bank CPF $20b investment plan for 2026-35 launched

ISLAMABAD  –  The Economic Affairs Division (EAD) key milestone was the launched of the World Bank’s Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for 2026-2035, with $20 billion in planned investments. The EAD has actively worked to align foreign economic assistance with Pakistan’s national priorities, including energy, climate resilience, and human development.

The EAD also secured $8 billion in loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for 2024-2027 and successfully mobilised $1 billion from the World Bank for the Dasu Hydroelectric Power Project, according to an official one year performance report of the incumbent government. In FY 2024-25, EAD disbursed $5.97 billion in loans and grants, with major contributors being multilateral partners like the World Bank and ADB. Additionally, the government repaid $12 billion in external loans. The Saudi Arabia deferred oil facility was successfully renegotiated for $1.2 billion, report said. The EAD also launched several debt management initiatives, including data integration and strategy formulation to improve public debt governance. It signed new loans worth $5.27 billion, including $1.52 billion for oil and commodity financing. High-level economic dialogues and bilateral commissions were conducted with countries like Kuwait, Iraq, Russia, and the EU.

According to report, major accomplishment to reduce costs, the EAD saved Rs811,000 on foreign delegation visits. It also focused on capacity building, training 752 officers in various disciplines, and offering long-term training programmes under Pakistan Technical Assistance Programme (PTAP) to 240 foreign students and dual nationals. The report shared the Public engagement initiatives said that under 2022 policy, 1,192 fresh projects worth $593 million and 270 renewal cases worth $423 were approved, having total worth $1.01 billion for all 1,462 projects.

To facilitate NGOs/NPOs all applications are being processed through online NGO portal developed by EAD. However, currently the NGOs policy 2022 is suspended as per order of the Lahore High Court, Lahore, the report said. At the beginning of FY 2023-24, Pakistan was faced with the challenges of global monetary policy tightening, fiscal and external imbalances, persistently high inflationary pressure and geopolitical tensions. During this period, a sum of $5,359.28 million (including $999.87 million of commercial banks) were committed as loan and $68.61 million as grants from development partners, the report said. The total disbursements amounted to $2,968.43 million from July 2023 to January, 2024 against the Budget Estimates of $6,219 million for FY 2023-24. Moreover, on account of debt servicing (July 2023 to January 2024), loans amounting to $5,912.53 million, including $3,331.52 million principal repayments and $1,861.01 million interest payments were serviced.

The strategic vision of Economic Affairs Division is the mobilisation of external economic assistance for socio-economic development and prudent debt management.

According to report, under the Rules of Business, Economic Affairs Division is responsible for assessment of requirements, programming and negotiations of external economic assistance from foreign governments and multilateral development partners.

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