President ECOSF attended PIDE Webinar "How Railways are being financed in the 21st century’’

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Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) organized the series of webinar on Pakistan Railways. The first two webinars of the series on Pakistan Railways (PR) historically reviewed Pakistan Railways from pre-partition times till today. The third webinar discussed the current and international practices in Track Access Regime and the fourth webinar discussed China’s railway sector in comparison with other large countries’ railway sector: similarities and differences. President ECOSF attended the fifth webinar on August 04, 2021 on how Railways are being financed in the 21st Century and how the railway gets funds, Ways of financing, Policies for financing, and who are regulators of financing mechanisms.

The webinar was moderated by Dr. Naadeem ul Haque – the Vice-Chancellor of PIDE and the Co-Host of the webinar was Dr. Amer Zafar Durrani, President, Reenergia. On behalf of ECOSF, President Manzoor Soomro attended the webinar.

Distinguished Panelists included:

• Martha Lawrence: Leader of the Railways Community of Practice at the World Bank
• George Kaulbeck: Global Director and Partner Transport at CPCS - Solutions for Growing Economies, Consultancy
• Johan Bouwer: Chief Operating Officer at MavLOG
• Mazhar Shah: AGM Traffic, Pakistan Railways
• Farooq Hyder Shaikh: Advisor/Executive Director Business Planning, Pakistan Railways

Martha Lawrence from World Bank underscored that the best railway funding sources are passenger tickets, freight services, Government, and other services. She further said that Financing is easy, it's not magic. All one needs to do is "Risk Management", Business Environment, Sector Governance & Corporate governance.

George Kaulbeck, Global Director and Partner Transport at CPCS - Solutions for Growing Economies, Consultancy said that financing rail projects are generally straightforward when it is cash positive & profitable. Mr. Johan Bouwer, Chief Operating Officer at MavLOG discussed Commercial Railway Reality - funding & financing.

Farooq Shaikh, Advisor/Executive Director Business Planning, Pakistan Railways said that Pakistan Railways is currently at a loss, getting subsidies from govt, but aiming to go high in revenue & funding, discussed some key issues of Pakistan Railways with Future Strategy. He said that Cultural Change in Pakistan Railways is the biggest challenge. We are aiming to outsource our additional projects i.e schools, hospitals, buildings & housing projects, he said.