The Asian Development Bank has offered investment worth millions of dollars in the water and power sectors in Pakistan in the coming years.

This assurance was given by the head of the four member delegation of Asian Development Bank, Sean O’ Sullivan during a meeting with the Minister for Water and Power, Raja Pervez Ashraf here on Thursday.

The investment opportunities as well as the progress of on-going projects in water and power sectors were discussed in the meeting.

They assured technical and financial support and assistance for major water and power sector projects including the upgradation of the existing distribution systems and transmission lines in order to improve the efficiency of the system and the supply of electricity to the consumers, besides major rehabilitation and infrastructure projects in the water sector.

The Minister while welcoming the delegation informed that the present democratic government was keen on attracting foreign investment in the power sector as according to him there is great scope in this sector.

The Minister informed that currently Pakistan is facing a shortfall of more than 3,000MW of electricity, and the government is encouraging private investors to come forward and invest in the power sector.

He stated that the confidence of the domestic as well as foreign investors would get a boost and the economy would be made more stable through adopting rationale policies to remove all hindrances and bottlenecks in this respect.

He informed the delegation that Pakistan was also focusing on alternative energy projects like wind, solar energy, coal-based generation and hydropower and that the bank’s support in these fields would be a great help.

He said that to meet the shortfall in power, the government wants to increase the generation capacity and intends to install a large run of river hydropower projects, such as Kohala and Bunji, for which he sought the technical and financial assistance of ADB. The delegation appreciated the needs of Pakistan and assured to provide all technical and financial assistance in this respect.

The head of the ADB delegation appreciated the efforts of the government on the growing steps to cope with energy needs. He said that ADB was a major financer for the power sector in Pakistan, and it had also extended help in the water sectors’ mega projects including power transmission enhancement project, power distribution enhancement project, energy efficiency improvement and renewable energy development projects.

He said that to meet the financial requirements of these projects, a multi tranche financing facility to the extent of US$800 million extendable to $1200 million had been agreed up on. He added that ADB is also assisting Pakistan in capacity building of the power sector institutions for which technical assistance was being extended.

The minister also informed the delegation that Pakistan was embarking on the construction of multipurpose dams which would meet the power needs on a long term basis. This will involve an overall investment of over $18 billion in the next 5-10 years. He expressed the hope that ADB would extend liberal financial assistance, particularly for the Diamir Bhasha Dam work, which is to be started early 2009.

The minister informed the delegation that to meet the urgent needs of power, some thermal projects were being started in the public sector but stressed the need for the involvement of private sector as a long term objective, and the continuity of the reform agenda in the power sector.

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