The USAID has planned to spend 40 million dollars on the promotion of education and development of agriculture in Multan while 140 million dollars would be spent in flood-hit areas during next three years.
The USAID has approved funding for the development of food processing, preserving, agricultural industry, construction, cottage industry, and tourism in Multan and South Punjab under a private sector initiative, said a delegation of USAID headed by Ms Beth Paige, Director of US Agency for International Development (USAID) on Monday. The delegation comprised Ms Beth Paige, Paul Sabatine, Deputy Director, USAID, Edward Gonzalez, USAID Officer, Sajjad Mogal, USAID Multi-Sector Development Specialist Haroon Rahim, Project Management Specialist, USAID briefed the executive committee of Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry chaired by its president Shahid Naseem Khokhar regarding the ongoing and upcoming projects of USAID in Pakistan, especially in Southern Punjab.
In addition, the visiting USAID delegation, would like seek advise on possible avenues for improving economic growth of the country. Ms Beth said that hundred thousand dollars fund allocated under the United States Assistance for International Development (USAID) Firms project would be utilised for the development of the sectors identified by the Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI).
The MCCI finalised the strategy for utilising the earmarked sum in a meeting with the representatives of the USAID and the FIRMS project. The meeting approved the activity plan for implementing the MoU and the MCCI was informed that FIRMS would initially carry out a vision document for two of the six sectors identified. The Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry had identified sectors including industry, where the sub-sectors would be food processing, handicrafts, handloom, construction and cottage industry, and tourism both foreign and domestic. The Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Shahid Naseem Khokhar chaired the meeting.
They informed the MCCI that the plan for MoU implementation was an outcome of a review carried out by the project on private sector development in the South Punjab. He said that good strategies do existed, but the challenge was to create a realistic framework for implementing the strategies. He shared the FIRMS project perspective of developing an economic vision document for the Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry that would largely build on similar work already carried out by the World Bank and other donor agencies. He said it would take into account the impact of major events over the last five to six years on economy and private sector enterprises in the province, which include power and energy crises, political instability and the damages caused by flood to the communication network and infrastructure in this area.
The project will put together a draft vision document to generate a structured discussion in the working groups. It will mainly be based on the technical inputs and feedback received from the experts.
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