By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Donors at an international conference in Geneva on Monday pledged to give more than $8 billion over the next three years to help Pakistan in flood recovery, the information minister said.
Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb in a tweet said that pledges had reached $8.57 billion – more than it had initially sought.
“The first plenary of the day-long Geneva conference culminated in a generous outpouring of the international community. EU pledged $93 million, Germany $88 million, China $100 million, IDB $4.2 billion, World Bank $2 billion, Japan $77 million, ADB $1.5 billion, USAID $100 million, France $345 million — total $8.57 billion,” Aurangzeb said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had sought $8 billion assistance over the next three years in his remarks at the opening session of the ‘International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan’, which he co-hosted with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The country needs about $16.3 billion to cover the short and long-term needs of the victims of last year’s floods. It would meet half the funding from its own resources.
In the monster downpour, last summer that inundated one-third of Pakistan, approximately 1,700 people lost their lives, and close to 13,000 are injured. Around 7.9 million are still displaced. Women and children make up nearly 70 percent of the 33 million affected and one-third of all recorded deaths and injuries are children.
Officials from some 40 countries, as well as private donors and international financial institutions attended the conference.
The UN chief Guterres called for “massive investments” to help Pakistan recover from last year´s devastating floods and better resist climate change.
“We must match the heroic response of the people of Pakistan with our own efforts and massive investments, to strengthen their communities for the future,” Guterres said.
“No country deserves to endure what happened to Pakistan… If there is any doubt about loss and damage, go to Pakistan. There is loss. There is damage.”
PM Sharif told the conference the country was “racing against time” to deal with towering needs.
“The first part of the plan reflects the recovery and reconstruction, bearing in mind that the minimum funding of $16.3 billion is required, half of which will be met with domestic resources, half from foreign resources,” Sharif said. “I am asking for a sustained international support plan. I am asking for a new lifeline.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen also addressed the conference via video links.
IMF Funding
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sharif said he has asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a pause in its demands for economic reforms before releasing more financial aid, as the country tries to rebuild after catastrophic floods.
Media reported that Sharif said he was trying to persuade the IMF to give Islamabad some breathing space as it tackles the “nightmarish” situation.
“This is an ongoing dialogue. I´m sure one day soon we will be able to convince them through logic and through facts,” Sharif said. “”That said, regardless, we will comply with the IMF programme.”
He said Pakistan was complying with the IMF´s conditions “as best as possible” but asked “how on Earth” the additional burdens could be shouldered by the country’s poorest.
“Yet we are committed to the IMF´s programme. We will do everything to comply with the terms and conditions. Though I am constantly trying to persuade them: please give us a pause,” he said.
The fund’s programme is on hold because of the inability of both sides to strike a consensus on major contentious issues. Pakistan’s ninth review of staff-level talks with the IMF for the release of its next tranche has been delayed since September.
The country entered the $6 billion IMF programme in 2019, which was raised to $7 billion this year. The country will get $1.18 billion after the programme’s ninth review.
Pakistan’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar also met IMF officials on the sidelines of the conference in Geneva.
“It was a good meeting but I do not have any statements to make,” Athanasios Arvanitis, deputy director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department told reporters in Geneva.
The finance ministry in a statement Minister Dar and IMF officials “discussed challenges to regional economies in the wake of climate change”. “(The) finance minister reiterated the commitment to complete the Fund program,” it added.
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