Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Japan Keishiro Keishiro Fukushima on Wednesday appreciated President General Musharraf's idea of enlightened moderation and said Japan desires to assist Pakistan in becoming a developed modern Islamic State. He stated this in a meeting with the Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar here at the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Keishiro Keishiro Fukushima said Japan would provide technical and financial assistance to Pakistan in a number of areas but mainly focusing on human resource development, strengthening infrastructure required for a fast, balanced economic development and urban renewal, particularly that of Karachi.
He said those were the three priority areas of Japan's Country Assistance Programme for Pakistan.
He said Japan was in the process to resume the yen loan to Pakistan adding the projects submitted by Pakistan for the purpose would be scrutinised and loan would be awarded against the approved projects.
Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar thanked Keishiro for appreciating the idea of enlightened moderation, and for supporting the direction taken by the Government of Pakistan for socio-economic development. Apprising Keishiro of the steps taken by the government to improve the socio-economic situation of Pakistan, she said Pakistan's economy had greatly stabilised and it had substantially recovered from the setbacks faced during the last decade of 90s which witnessed a very meager economic growth and social development.
Hina Rabbani Khar said government had been gradually increasing PSDP to allocate more resources to the development of social sector.
She said education was amongst the top most priorities of the government. In that sector the government was mainly focusing on increasing literacy rate, improving quality, increasing the absorption capacity, teachers' training, enrolment of female students, mainstreaming of Madrassah education, decrease in the rate of dropouts and vocational training to bridge the skills gap which was vital for development.
Hina Rahbani Khar said in the development process government was focusing more on the less developed areas.
"Government does not want pockets of development and pockets of poverty. It is making efforts to bridge the gap between various sections of society as well as various regions of the country" said the Minister.
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