The government aims to shift 70 percent of electricity generation from fossil fuels to hydel-based and renewable sources by 2030, Stated Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Omar Ayub Khan.
A meeting was held between the Economic Affairs Division minister and USA’s Alternative Executive Director to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) John Hurley, in which this decision was taken. EAD Secretary Mian Asad Hayaud Din, ADB Country Director Yong Ye and Pakistan’s Executive Director to ADB Noor Ahmed also attended the meeting.
According to the report, the minister greeted Hurley on his first official visit to Pakistan and showed his thankfulness to the ADB management for competently handling and successfully acquiring Covid-19 inoculations to upkeep the government’s national inoculation drive.
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Omar Ayub emphasized the financial and budgetary significance of two ADB funded programme loans proposed to target reform initiatives in the energy and capital market sectors. Under the reform initiatives within the Energy and Capital Markets Sectors, the government intends to move away 70% of electricity generation from fossil fuels to hydel-based and renewable sources by 2030.
John Hurley repeated ADB’s pledge to support Pakistan’s reform programmes, particularly in the energy and financial markets sectors, and to accelerate the economic retrieval process once the current IMF review is accomplished.
Hurley also highlighted the significance of pipeline ADB funded programme loans like the Domestic Resource Mobilisation Programme to speed up the tax base and boost general revenue collection targets of the country for upcoming debt sustainability and growth.
Moreover, Omar Ayub voiced that given the speedy pace of urbanization and population growth, the present government keeps the urban services sector at priority.
He underlined the significance of evolving farm to market roads like communication linkages and confirming power supply to distant areas for increasing market access and improving the rate of return.
The minister told Hurley that from the National Coordination Committee on Foreign Funded Projects (NCC-FPP), EAD had considerably enhanced the performance of ongoing projects by removing key loopholes.
The minister also stressed the additional efforts within EAD to increase project management and supervise by generating a devoted monitoring cell.
