Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday declared that the government will use “every penny” of the donations promised at a donors’ meeting in Geneva for the well-being and rehabilitation of flood-affected citizens.
He spoke to the media after Pakistan received over $10 billion in donations from donor nations in Geneva.
This week, worldwide donors promised to give Pakistan a sizable gift of more than $10 billion to aid in its recovery from the floods of the previous year. The forum, co-hosted by Islamabad and the UN, drew representatives from almost 40 nations as well as private donors and international financial organizations.
The premier opened the press conference by emphasizing that the Geneva summit had been a “success” for Pakistan, accompanied by members of the federal cabinet.
The Islamic Development Bank (ADB) owned a significant portion of the overall financial promises, with $4.2 billion, he claimed. “Be it a bilateral or international contribution, a figure of $9.7 billion is the whole amount [that was committed],” he stated.
According to the prime minister, Saudi Arabia pledged $1 billion at the conference, followed by China ($100 million), Qatar ($25 million), Canada ($18.5 million), Denmark ($3.8 million), the European Union ($87 million), France ($380 million), Germany ($84 million), Italy ($23 million), and Azerbaijan ($2 million).
The prime minister said that the amount pledged by “friendly nations” demonstrated respect for Pakistan, and he added that if there had been concerns about financial irregularities, the countries would not have committed.
He reaffirmed that the current coalition administration has the confidence of world leaders and said, “Now it is up to us to use the amount on infrastructural development and for the growth of other key sectors.”
The PM also praised Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman for his plans to double the number of deposits at the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to $5 billion.
He said that the government will continue to work to assist those affected by the floods up until they are given new housing.
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari referred to the PM’s foreign policy as “successful” in his speech and said that the government had “hit two targets with one shot.”
“When I say we achieved two aims concurrently, it implies we also eliminated a fallacy that Pakistan is alone.”
According to Bilawal, the need for $16 billion [for flood recovery] during the Covid crisis and the catastrophe brought on by the conflict between Ukraine and Russia is “no joke.”
Speaking at the conference, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar stated that he and his team had a lengthy conversation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) team and that the government would not put a burden on the general public as a result of a deal agreed with the international lender.
He urged doubters to refrain from causing panic over “default” rumors and urged them to put the national interest first.
