The $500 million loan to Pakistan will provide critical countercyclical financing to strengthen social protection, food security, and support for businesses. This was stated by the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a multilateral lender, in a post, according to Gwadar Pro. Pakistan's government said on Tuesday that it had received the funds from AIIB. The funds were provided under the Building Resilience with Active Countercyclical Expenditures (BRACE) Program of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). 

AIIB is co-financing the program under its COVID-19 Crisis Recovery Facility. According to AIIB, the program will finance expenditures for strengthening the social safety net and fiscal measures to support the Pakistani government’s response to deal with the triple crises of COVID-19 pandemic, conflict and flood disaster. The Program will specifically support measures for social protection to increase the number of beneficiaries for cash transfer under the national social protection program from 8 million to 9 million households, and fuel subsidies for the vulnerable, it said.

It will also support food security measures to provide grants for food security including food transportation and subsidization for the urban poor, subsidy for fertilizers, subsidy on imported urea; and agriculture relief initiative (for seeds and tractors).This component will also support Kamyab Jawan Program (a youth vocational training, entrepreneurship, and employment initiative) as well as provide support for exporters, AIIB said.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP