Pakistan's Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has urged the Asian Development Bank to take lead role for setting up a consortium for financing the Bhasha-Diamer dam project at an estimated cost of $8 billion. In a meeting with President of Asian Development Bank Haruhiko Kurodo here, the Prime Minister also sought assistance for continuation of Higher Education Commission's adequate scholarship programme and for establishment of engineering university in Pakistan in collaboration with world's renowned institutions of excellence. The Prime Minister lauded ADB‘s contribution towards development of infrastructure as the biggest development partner of Pakistan, according to a report of Associated Press of Pakistan (APP). He appreciated ADB‘s swift disbursement of the first tranche of $500 million in last September under ‘Pakistan Accelerating Transformation Programme‘ initiative and expressed the hope that the second tranche of equivalent amount would also be disbursed in time by the second quarter of current year. The Prime Minister briefed the ADB President on the structural reforms of his government under the difficult decisions like withdrawal of subsidies. Haruhiko Kurodo appreciated the policies of democratic government particularly its fiscal measures and hoped that Pakistan government will continue with the structural reforms. He hoped that the constructive relationship between Pakistan and ADB would be further strengthened in future. The ADB President assured the Prime Minister that ADB would consider Pakistan's requests for financing the Bhasha dam project, and other programmes on energy, infrastructure, educational sector reforms and regional cooperation.
