Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, the Finance Minister on October 26, 2016 witnessed the signing ceremony between the Government of Pakistan and Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a Loan agreement of US$ 250 million for Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) “Regional Improvement of border services project”. The signing ceremony was held in the local hotel after 15th CAREC ministerial Conference.

Speaking on the occasion, the Finance Minister thanked ADB for providing support to Pakistan in the border management sector. He assured Pakistan’s commitment to mobilize all possible resources for improving and developing regional connectivity and linkages particularly with Afghanistan and Central Asian Region. Furthermore he mentioned that Government of Pakistan is very much keen to enhance economic cooperation with Central Asia.

The components of the project are; Development of physical infrastructure at border crossing points; provision of equipments (scanner, weigh-bridges etc); IT hardware & soft ware support-transition to single window system; Streamlining cross border procedures and capacity development.

The objectives of the project are; to adopt single window system for integrated and coordinated management of borders; increase trade and transit cargo through border crossing points; efficient cross border processing of goods and people and modernize border crossing points.

The loan agreement was signed by Mr. Tariq Bajwa, the Secretary, Economic Affairs Division and Mr. Werner E. Liepach, Country Director, Asian Development Bank.