Pakistan seeks help with $16b flood rebuilding at UN conference
Pakistan will ask Monday for billions in international support towards its recovery from the aftermath of previous year's devastating floods and to help it better resist climate change.
To meet the huge needs, Pakistan and the United Nations will co-host an international conference in Geneva, urging countries, organisations and businesses to step up with financial and other support towards a long-term recovery and resilience plan.
Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers September last year displaced some eight million people and killed at least 1,700 in a catastrophe blamed on climate change.
Most of the waters have now receded but the reconstruction work, estimated at around 16.3 billion US dollar, to rebuild millions of homes and thousands of kilometres of roads and railway is just beginning and millions more people may slide into poverty.
'This is a pivotal moment for the international community to stand with Pakistan and to commit to a resilient and inclusive recovery from these devastating floods,' said Knut Ostby, United Nations' Development Programme's Pakistan Representative.
Additional funding is crucial to Pakistan amid growing concerns about its ability to pay for imports such as energy and food and to meet sovereign debt obligations abroad.
However, it is not yet known if Pakistan, with a 350 billion dollar economy, will be eligible to tap into that future funding.
Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Khalil Hashmi, said Islamabad was willing to pay for about half of the bill but hoped for support from donors for the rest. 'We will be mobilising international support through various means,' he said. 'We look forward to working with our partners.'
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation will meet Pakistan's finance minister on the sidelines of the conference, a spokesman of the lender said on Sunday, as Pakistan struggles to restart its bailout programme.
The IMF is yet to approve the release of 1.1 billion dollar originally due to be disbursed in November previous year, leaving Pakistan with only enough foreign exchange reserves to cover one month's imports.
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