-World Bank to provide over $3b for Energy Sector
DM Monitoring
ISLAMABAD: Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and prime minister, is slated to visit Pakistan this month (Novem-ber) during which Islamabad hopes to get a $4.2 billion bailout package from Riyadh, a private news channel reported Monday citing diplomatic sources.
The Saudi leader’s rare visit is tentatively scheduled for November 21. Prince Salman’s special security detail is likely to arrive in Islamabad by the end of this week to review the security arrangements for final approval.
Moreover, Saudi Arabia is also expected to make solid investments in Paki-stan. Sources also said that a number of Pakistan-Saudi petroleum agree-ments are being finalised for signing during the visit of his excellency.
The government is also counting on a likely agreement that will help round up financial support from Saudi Arabia for the establishment of a state-of-the-art refinery in Gwadar.
The refinery, to be built at a cost of $10 billion, will be co-financed by the kingdom and China.
According to sources, initially, Chinese companies will run the operations of the refinery after the completion of the project.
The sources, however, added that so far things looked fine but a spike in political noise could affect the crown prince’s itinerary.
Meanwhile, the World Bank (WB) has agreed to provide more than $3 bil-lion to Pakistan for infrastructure development in the energy sector, ac-cording to a press release issued by the Power Division on Monday.
The international lender will also provide assistance in the Dasu hydropow-er project. “The World Bank is assisting in energy efficiency and conserva-tion programmes, apart from helping provinces in installing solar pro-jects,” it said.
The development followed a meeting between the World Bank delegation and Minister for Energy Khurram Dastgir.
Dastgir informed the delegation that the government had taken “tough and difficult decisions” in the power sector, referring to the increase in electric-ity prices, which he said were “politically difficult” but the government was committed to ensuring sustainability in the energy sector.
“The minister said the government is committed to providing relief to the common man. The minister appreciated that the Bank recognised the challenges faced by the country and the difficult decisions taken in wake of it.”
He added that climate change had made a “devastating impact” on Paki-stan’s economy and the energy sector. The delegation was also briefed on the CASA-1000 and Dasu power projects.
Last week, the World Bank also signed two agreements with the govern-ment to extend $500 million worth of two separate loans to Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The loans pertained to Punjab Resilient and Inclusive Agriculture Trans-formation Project worth $200 million and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Accessi-bility Project worth $300 million.
