Slow pace of foreign funding halts KP development projects

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government said that the international financial institutions have provided just 20% of the promised funds during the first six months of the current financial year.

As per the report of KP Planning and Development (P&D) department, the provincial government spent only 11 percent of the total funding on the proposed projects.

For the current financial year, the KP government has proposed 60 mega projects with the financial support of international aid agencies but all the projects are suffering from a low pace of work.

The aid agencies have released only Rs18.20 billion in the first six months of the financial year out of which the provincial government has used Rs9.75 billion.

According to the document, seven projects of four departments, including four projects for clean water supply, one each of forest, interior ministry and labour department are yet to receive any funding. 

Similarly, the departments to which funds have been released; includes Rs122 million out of Rs27.25 billion for two projects of the finance department, Rs5.97 billion out of Rs12.60 billion for seven energy projects and Rs2.78bn out of Rs10.74bn has been released for five road projects.

The documents show that Rs1.18bn out of Rs8.95bn has been released for 17 multi-sector development projects. For one transport project, only Rs 221 mn has been released out of Rs8.67bn. For three agriculture projects, Rs1.70bn has been released out of Rs4.89 billion

Similarly, Rs2.16 billion out of Rs3.52 billion has been released for two projects of the local government department, Rs3 billion out of Rs3.12 billion for two sports and tourism projects, only Rs70 million out of Rs3.11 billion has been released for four primary and secondary education projects.

Rs451 million out of Rs1.98 billion were released for three projects in the health sector. Rs38 million out of Rs1.42 billion has been released for one irrigation project, Rs232 million out of Rs1 billion has been released for one project of the industrial department and Rs837 million has been released for three urban development projects.

The documents show that Rs33 million out of Rs837 million has been released for three urban development projects and Rs225 million out of Rs282 million has been released for two Science and Information Technology projects.

Projects under implementation are being funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB), European Union (EU), World Bank (WB), China, France, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom and United States of America.