The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday announced that the regional bank will

provide $2.7 billion in approved financing to Pakistan during the outgoing calendar
year.

The ABD, through a tweet, also announced that under the recently approved Country
Operations Business Plan (COBP) 2020-2022, it will increase average lending to the
country to $2.4bn a year � showing a whopping increase from the $1.4bn on average
from 2015 to 2018.

According to the ADB, it will leverage the country's lending through the
mobilisation of co-financing and funding from other sources, including regional
concessional resources.

"The new COBP will support Pakistan�s development goals and complement efforts by
other development partners,� it added.

On Monday, the Manila-based lending agency said it had approved a $200 million loan
as additional financing to support the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

A press release issued by the ADB noted that an ADB-financed social protection
development project, approved in 2013, had enabled the enrollment of over 855,000
beneficiaries of the BISP.

Earlier in July, the ADB had announced to extend up to $10 billion indicative
lending to Pakistan for various development projects and programmes during the next
five years.

The bank said it had a series of country consultations to formulate a new Country
Partnership Strategy (CPS), which will guide ADB�s engagement in the country from
2020 to 2024. The purpose of ADB�s 5-year CPS is to define priorities and to
support Pakistan�s development goals. The new strategy will also complement efforts
by other development partners.