Currently, Pakistan`s capital markets play a limited role in financial intermediation and resource mobilization. The Pakistani stock exchange lacks depth in the number of investors and the number of companies raising capital. Less than 250,000 individual investors or less than 0.1% of the population have an equity investment account and the Pakistani Stock Exchange lags behind most of its regional counterparts in terms of market capitalization as a percentage of gross domestic product. The ADB has supported the development of Pakistan`s financial markets over the past two decades through three political loans. The loan agreement was signed by Noor Ahmed, Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs and National Director of the ADB. Economy Minister Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar witnessed the signing of the third capital market development programme (sub-program -1) for $300 million between the Pakistani government and the Asian Development Bank. Loan contracts define the terms of a loan agreement. Khare and Konishi also signed the agreement on funding for the Madhya Pradesh Urban Service Improvement Project, which provides additional funding to expand the scope of the ongoing project, which was approved in 2017 with a $275 million loan. ISLAMABAD-Pakistan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $300 million loan agreement on Wednesday, approved a few days earlier by a Manila-based lender. ADB and the Government of India have signed a $300 million loan to finance inclusive and sustainable water supply and sanitation infrastructure and services in 14 rajasthan cities, the agency said in a press release. In addition, a $270 million loan was signed to develop water supply and integrated infrastructure for rainwater and wastewater management, as well as to strengthen the capacity of municipal facilities to improve service delivery in Madhya Pradesh. The multilateral financing agency Asian Development Bank said Monday that it had a colorful loan worth $570 million (about 4,180 kronor) with the center to finance the construction of public infrastructure and strengthen urban local communities in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. This April 2012 document is intended for the ADB 40648-033 project in India.

The Federal Minister of the Economy paid tribute to the ADB for this support. He stressed that the diversification, deepening and expansion of the Pakistani capital market was essential for the mobilization of domestic resources for business and industrial development, economic development and job creation.