Saturday, July 15 2006 15:30 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: The World Bank has agreed to provide $1.8 billion to Pakistan for a $6 billion programme to meet domestic transportation needs and provide transit facilities to Central Asia, western China, Afghanistan and Iran. A World Bank team met Salman Shah, adviser to the prime minister on finance, and committed that the bank would provide $300 million a year as support to the National Trade Corridor (NTC), reported the Dawn Saturday. The programme is the result of year-long consultations with various ministries, corporations and key international lenders including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). It covers core areas like ports and shipping, trade facilitation, highways and modernizing of trucks, aviation and air transport, and railway network.

According to an official statement, Shah said Pakistan attached high priority to the programme to bring a paradigm improvement in the country's competitiveness.

The programme is spread over a period of six years and would be supported by other donors. The investment plan will be fully implemented in about five years, said Asad Shah, the Planning Commission member on infrastructure. "The existing infrastructure capacity cannot support 7-8 percent of sustained economic growth," said a Planning Commission report. The plan aims at improving Pakistan's share of world trade from 0.2 percent to 1 percent by 2030 and increase Pakistan's exports from $17 billion in 2006 to around $250 billion by 2030. "It will enhance regional connectivity through trade links, energy and transport corridors with China, Central Asian Republics, Afghanistan and Iran", said Shah.