The Asian Development Bank on March 18 launched its new Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) for Pakistan, covering 2026 to 2030 — a five-year roadmap that targets six high-impact sectors including critical minerals, railways, clean energy, and water management. For procurement professionals tracking South Asia, this strategy signals a significant pipeline of contracts across infrastructure, consulting, and supplies as ADB channels billions into one of its founding member countries.
The Strategy: Three Pathways, Six Priority Sectors
The CPS is built around three strategic pathways: enabling private sector development, advancing inclusion and empowerment, and enhancing resilience and sustainability. These are supported by crosscutting themes of good governance, gender equality, digital transformation, and regional cooperation.
What makes this strategy notable for the procurement community is its explicit identification of six transformative opportunity sectors:
- Critical minerals exploration and development
- Railways and multimodal connectivity modernization
- Energy security and clean energy transition
- Agricultural productivity and value chains
- Integrated water resource management
- Skills development and employment
Each of these sectors will generate distinct procurement streams — from large-scale civil works and equipment supply to technical assistance and capacity building consultancies.
ADB Country Director for Pakistan Emma Fan stated that the strategy "promotes investments and reforms across key sectors to stimulate economic growth" and is "tailored to address Pakistan's structural challenges and promote growth that benefits all citizens, particularly the poor and vulnerable."
The CPS aligns with Pakistan's National Economic Transformation Plan (2024-2029) and ADB's own Strategy 2030 Midterm Review, reflecting shared priorities around export-led growth backed by improved public financial management and regulatory reform.
Why Pakistan, Why Now
Pakistan's inclusion in a fresh five-year ADB strategy comes at a pivotal moment for the country's economy. After years of fiscal distress, Pakistan has entered a macroeconomic stabilization phase under its 37-month IMF Extended Fund Facility approved in September 2024.
The results have been notable: Pakistan posted its first current account surplus in 14 years in fiscal year 2025, achieved a primary fiscal surplus of 1.3% of GDP, and brought inflation under control. The IMF completed its second review of the EFF in December 2025, confirming Pakistan's compliance with program targets.
Growth projections for fiscal year 2026 range between 3.2% (IMF estimate) and 4.75% (State Bank of Pakistan), marking a recovery from the near-zero growth of 2022-2023. This stabilization creates the fiscal space and reform momentum that ADB needs to justify large-scale lending.
ADB has been one of Pakistan's most important development partners since the country became a founding member in 1966. To date, the bank has committed $58.6 billion across 764 public sector loans, grants, and technical assistance projects — making Pakistan one of ADB's largest borrowers.
Recent approvals underscore the scale of ongoing engagement: $330 million for power transmission (November 2025), $800 million for fiscal sustainability (June 2025), $200 million for power distribution modernization, and $130 million for energy sector reform. Annual ADB lending to Pakistan has consistently exceeded $2 billion in recent years, and the 2026-2030 CPS is expected to maintain or increase that pace.
Critical Minerals: Pakistan's $6 Trillion Opportunity
The explicit inclusion of critical minerals as a priority sector may be the CPS's most significant signal for international contractors. Pakistan is estimated to hold untapped mineral wealth worth up to $6 trillion, including the world's fifth-largest copper reserves, substantial deposits of lithium, chromite, rare earth elements, and gold.
The flagship project is Reko Diq in Balochistan — one of the world's largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits. In 2025, the United States approved $1.3 billion in financing for Reko Diq during the Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington, and Pakistan dispatched its first shipment of enriched rare earth elements to the U.S. in October 2025.
Balochistan province contains approximately 70-80% of Pakistan's known mineral reserves, but the sector remains severely underexplored. The geological potential extends across Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where lithium, cobalt, and nickel deposits have been detected but require detailed mapping.
ADB's CPS support for critical minerals will likely generate procurement opportunities in:
- Geological surveys and exploration — consulting contracts for detailed mineral mapping
- Mining infrastructure — roads, power supply, water management in remote areas
- Processing facilities — equipment supply and engineering for mineral beneficiation
- Regulatory and institutional capacity building — technical assistance for mining governance
- Environmental and social impact assessments — consulting services for ESG compliance
With the global race for critical minerals intensifying and the IEA warning of a 60% lithium deficit by 2035, Pakistan's mineral sector represents a strategic frontier where ADB financing meets strong geopolitical demand.
Railways: The $6.7 Billion ML-1 Corridor and Beyond
The CPS prioritizes railways and multimodal connectivity at a moment when Pakistan's rail infrastructure is undergoing its most ambitious overhaul in decades. The centerpiece is the ML-1 (Main Line-1) project — a $6.7 billion modernization of the 1,700-kilometer Karachi-to-Peshawar corridor under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Construction is set to begin in July 2026 with the Karachi Port-Pipri section, and the full project will upgrade tracks, signaling systems, stations, and maintenance facilities across Pakistan's most critical freight and passenger route. Train speeds will increase from the current 65-110 km/h to 120-160 km/h, and daily operations will rise from 34 to between 137 and 171.
While ML-1 is primarily China-financed, ADB's CPS commitment to railways and multimodal connectivity opens the door to complementary investments in:
- Branch line rehabilitation and regional connectivity
- Dry port development and logistics infrastructure
- Rolling stock procurement and maintenance facilities
- Transit-oriented development around upgraded stations
- Multimodal freight hubs connecting rail to road and port networks
Pakistan moves approximately 95% of its freight by road, compared to just 4% by rail. Even modest shifts in this modal split would require massive investments in rail-adjacent infrastructure — warehousing, container handling, last-mile connectivity — creating procurement pipelines across works, supplies, and consulting.
Energy Transition: 27 GW of Solar and Counting
Pakistan's energy sector presents one of the most dynamic procurement environments in South Asia. The country has undergone a quiet solar revolution, with installed solar capacity estimated at over 27 GW — driven primarily by distributed rooftop installations rather than utility-scale plants.
The government aims to increase clean energy's share from the current 55% of electricity generation to over 90% by 2034. ADB's CPS support for energy security and clean energy aligns with recent ADB lending: the $330 million transmission project will build a 290-kilometer high-voltage line, while distribution modernization loans are upgrading infrastructure across Lahore, Multan, and Sukkur.
The CPS energy agenda will create procurement across:
- Transmission and distribution infrastructure — works contracts for grid expansion
- Utility-scale renewable energy — solar and wind project development
- Battery storage and grid integration — equipment supply and engineering
- Energy efficiency programs — consulting and technical assistance
- Natural gas and LNG infrastructure — transitional energy investments
For contractors already active in energy and environment tenders, Pakistan represents a market where rapid private-sector adoption of solar is creating grid integration challenges that require substantial public investment to resolve.
Agriculture, Water, and Climate Resilience
The 2022 floods — which submerged one-third of Pakistan, affected 33 million people, and caused $30 billion in damages — transformed how development partners approach Pakistan. The $16.3 billion reconstruction need identified in the post-disaster assessment made climate resilience a non-negotiable component of any development strategy.
The CPS addresses this through its focus on agricultural productivity and value chains alongside integrated water resource management. Pakistan's agriculture sector accounts for approximately 23% of GDP and employs nearly half the workforce, but remains highly vulnerable to climate shocks. The Indus River basin, which irrigates most of Pakistan's agricultural land, faces increasing stress from glacial melt and changing precipitation patterns.
The Green Climate Fund's $250 million Glaciers to Farms program — a flagship ADB-led initiative covering Pakistan alongside eight Central Asian countries — will invest in efficient irrigation, water storage, and watershed management backed by $3.25 billion in ADB co-financing over the coming decade.
Priority procurement areas include:
- Flood protection infrastructure — embankments, drainage, and early warning systems
- Irrigation modernization — canal lining, drip irrigation, water storage
- Agricultural value chain development — cold chain, processing facilities, market infrastructure
- Climate-smart agriculture consulting — research, extension services, policy advisory
- Air quality monitoring and management — sensors, data systems, policy support
These investments connect directly to tenders in agriculture and food and water and sanitation — two sectors where ADB procurement in Pakistan has historically been substantial.
What This Means for Contractors
The ADB Pakistan CPS 2026-2030 creates actionable opportunities for international firms in several ways:
- Register with ADB's Consultant Management System (CMS) if you haven't already — CPS-linked projects will use ADB's standard procurement procedures
- Monitor ADB Pakistan project page for new project approvals, which typically appear 6-12 months before procurement notices
- Target the emerging sectors — critical minerals and multimodal connectivity are new ADB priorities for Pakistan, meaning less entrenched competition
- Build local partnerships — ADB's emphasis on private sector development and PPPs means joint ventures with Pakistani firms will be favored
- Track complementary financing — World Bank, AIIB, and bilateral lenders (KfW, JICA, AFD) often co-finance alongside ADB projects
Pakistan's procurement environment is evolving rapidly, with digital transformation featured as a crosscutting CPS theme. Firms should watch for e-procurement reforms and simplified bidding processes as part of the governance improvements ADB will support.
Current Pakistan tenders on BidsFactory already reflect the ADB pipeline, and these are expected to grow significantly as CPS-linked projects move through preparation and into active procurement.
Looking Ahead
The ADB Pakistan CPS 2026-2030 sets the framework, but the real procurement activity will unfold over the coming months as individual projects receive Board approval. Key milestones to watch include:
- July 2026: ML-1 railway construction launch from Karachi Port
- 2026-2027: New ADB project approvals in critical minerals and water management
- Ongoing: Reko Diq mining project development creating demand for supporting infrastructure
- 2026-2030: GCF Glaciers to Farms implementation across the Swat River basin in Pakistan
With Pakistan's economy stabilizing, its mineral wealth gaining geopolitical importance, and climate resilience driving massive infrastructure needs, the new ADB strategy positions the country as one of South Asia's most significant procurement markets for the next five years.
Browse ADB tenders and Pakistan opportunities on BidsFactory to stay ahead of the pipeline.