ADB backs reform programme in Punjab Province

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is assisting the government of Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, by way of a US $204-million loan package approved on Thursday, with an ambitious reform programme that will make service delivery more efficient and pro-poor, according to an official. "There is a major effort in the Punjab Province. We selected it because of the large population," Marshuk Ali Shah, the ADB country representative, told IRIN in the capital, Islamabad. The Punjab Resource Management Programme is the first part of a planned cluster of three loans envisaged to amount up to $500 million over five years, aiming to improve Punjab's socioeconomic indicators and curb rising poverty levels, as outlined in the government's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), an ADB press release said. "We are going to be focusing on resource mobilisation and streamlining of administrative functions. The aim is to make the civil service function more efficiently and to make the government more proactive, as well as strengthen the local government structure," Shah explained. The programme would complement and integrate, at the provincial level, with various other governance-related initiatives in the PRSP, including those for fiscal devolution, decentralised service delivery, financial reporting and auditing and gender reform, the press statement said. The social indicators of the Punjab, the country's most economically significant province, were reflective of the country as a whole, it added. In May, the ADB announced an assistance package worth $2.6 billion and intended to cover the period from 2004 and 2006, following a meeting between Shaukat Aziz, the Pakistani finance minister, and Yoshihiro Iwasaki, the head of the ADB's South Asia department. But Shah said the new Punjab assistance loan was separate from the earlier package. "This new loan is completely separate from the $2.6 billion announced in the summer, because it starts now and carries on till the end of 2004, whereas the earlier country package is scheduled to start from 2004 and carry on through 2006," he said, adding that the remainder of the envisioned total of $500 million for the Punjab would be drawn from the bigger, country assistance package. Pakistan has initiated substantial governance reforms over the past three years, with devolution of power at their heart. As primary responsibility for service delivery in many areas now lies with local governments, provincial governments have to adjust to a new role with a focus on policy setting, the media statement said. "We are trying our best to help in improving the situation as much as we can. Our assessments show that there is a need for major improvement in management and project management," Shah said. Roughly 34 percent of Pakistan's population lives below the poverty line, earning less than $1 a day. ADB's assistance to Pakistan in 2002 totalled $1.14 billion.