Though currently, going through a financial crunch as a result of devastating earthquake and subsequent Tsunami, Japan is committed to help Pakistan in the social sector, especially the efforts directed to curb the poverty. Hiroshi OE, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan said this while talking to Farzana Raja during his visit to BISP Secretariat on Wednesday.
The Japanese ambassador lauded the efforts of the BISP regarding poverty alleviation and said that Vocational Training Programme (VTP) has proved instrumental in poverty reduction in various countries. He said that mutual co-operation with regard to Vocational Training initiative as well as micro-financing can also be explored and he would like to explore the possibilities further in collaboration with JICA.
Earlier, Farzana Raja presented the detail of various initiatives and the components of the BISP and said that poverty has a direct linkage with terrorism and hence, poverty alleviation has been made a prime objective of the programme. She said that vocational training to beneficiary families is aiming to attain financial self sustainability for these downtrodden segments of society.
Chairperson BISP said that Pakistan has a limited capacity for vocational training. Thus, co-operation from various international institutions/countries is being sought to enhance the opportunities of training for common people of Pakistan. She said that so far the programme has taken into its fold more than 4 million deserving families and this number is expected to rise up to 7 million as a result of poverty survey being conducted to identify beneficiary families in an effective and transparent manner. The poverty survey is first ever such initiative in the South Asia, she added.-PR
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