Pakistan focuses on infrastructure.

Recently, the Business Recorder (Karachi) reported the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) pledge to continue as Pakistan's developoment partner pledging US$1.2-billion in aid for Pakistan's 2005-2006 fiscal year. The money is to be used for water, infrastructure, energy and reform.

Additional funds will be forthcoming for the ensuing two fiscal years. Pakistan's fiscal year runs from July through June of the following calendar year.

The ADB was generous in its praise of Pakistan's progress--particularly in the area of economic growth. During the previous fiscal year Pakistan reported economic growth of 8.4 percent, among the highest growth rates in the Asia Pacific region.

Aid for the country's water projects is particularly urgent.

In its most recent "Overview of the Economy" the government said that the deterioration of the country's fresh water supply was continuing at "an alarming rate".

In 1951, available fresh water supplies were calculated at 5,300 cubic meters per capita. Currently, the level is 1,105 cubic meters per capita. The government said that the "water scarcity" is reached at a level of 1,000 cubic meters per capita.

Planning for the upcoming fiscal year also focuses on the country's housing stock. In the same "Overview" the government admitted that Pakistan's housing stock has deteriorated steadily over the past several years.

The country needs to create 820,000 units per year to meet the ambitious goals stated in its "Housing for All" program. Currently, the country creates approximately 300,000 housing units per year.

Any significant increase in the creation of housing will be a major stimulus for Pakistan's consumer sector.

New housing means new households, and new households create demand for durable goods. Although it is unlikely that Pakistan will be able to compare its consumer sector to that of the developed countries in the region, it would be a meaningful start.

YOUNG CONSUMERS AND A FAIRLY STABLE JOB MARKET BODE WELL

The population growth rate for Pakistan is well above the regional average, due in part to a birth rate of 34 per thousand inhabitants, which is above the average of 26 per thousand for South Central Asia. Job creation has not kept up with growth of the labor force in recent years, and it is unlikely that the situation will improve furhter in 2005. Unemployment is running about 8.3 percent, and this continues to undermine consumer confidence.

Pakistan's population reached 159-million people mid-2004, which amounted to 10 percent of South Central Asia's 1,587-million inhabitants. According to data released by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), Pakistan's population will reach 229-million by 2025. Also, according to that source, Pakistan is going to have a population of 295-million people in 2050.

The PRB revealed that a only 34 percent of Pakistan's population lived in urban areas during 2004, and that the country's population density is a comparatively high 518 people per square mile. Another source of demographic data, the CIA's World Factbook, indicates that 40 percent of Pakistan's population was birth to 14 years old in 2004, while 56 percent was 15 to 64 years old, and 4 percent of the populace was 65 years of age and over.

CIA statistics revealed that the country's population growth rate was 2.03 percent in 2004 and the According to the United Nations Population Division, in the year 2050, 23 percent of Pakistan's population will be birth to 14 years old, while 65 percent will be aged 15 to 59, and 12 percent of the populace will be 60 years of age and over.