Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on Wednesday appreciated the economic progress made by Pakistan and said that Pakistan offers good opportunities to Japanese businessmen.
Talking to Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz here she said that the slow down in Pak-Japan economic relations after 1998 (a reference to Pakistani and Indian nuclear tests) was a result of the "disruption of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA).
Officials said Kawaguchi told Shaukat Aziz that Tokyo was working to resume the ODA programme to Pakistan and once this window opened, a very large number of Japanese businessmen would be able to start trade and investment in Pakistan.
The Japanese government would soon send a mission to discuss Pakistan's needs and priorities before finalising its plan for the resumption of ODA.
Earlier, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz is reported to have pointed to a "nexus between resumption of ODA, economic development and reducing deprivation" as the intelligent use of funds leading to opportunity creation and poverty alleviation directly improved the standard of living.
He also suggested Japan should invest in medical care, education, infrastructure development and vocational training programmes and stressed that an "economically viable Pakistan was in the best interest of international community".
The improvement in the economic conditions of the country, Shaukat said, were a "major transformation" that would make "Pakistan of today and tomorrow, different from Pakistan of yesterday".
The federal government, he said, was focusing on attracting foreign investment and appreciated strong economic relations with Japan. Pakistan was following an open market policy, providing foreign investors a level playing field resulting in enhanced level of investments.
Japanese car manufacturers were doing great business as Hino, Toyota, Suzuki and Honda controlled 80 percent of the car industry. Their demand and production had almost tripled during the last few years, he added.
Meanwhile, a statement released on the eve of Kawaguchi's visit said that between August 1993 and June this year, the Overseas Development Association of Japan had given 7.493 billion yen to Pakistan as loans for specific projects and 18 billion yen as non-project grant assistance.
The loans were tied up to the projects like Indus Highway, rural road constructions, Karachi water supply improvement, secondary transmission lines and grid stations, Ghazi Barotha Hydropower, Balochistan middle level education, national drainage programme and Kohat Tunnel.
The grant aid was for Afghan refugees assistance, procurement of anti-polio vaccine, improvement of Islamabad children's hospital, emergency flood relief, health care system in Balochistan, upgradation of Plastic Technology Centre in Karachi and four grants for balance of payment support in foreign currency.
The last equalled to 20,000 million yen and was provided to the federal government between October 2001 to March this year, a period after lifting of nuclear-related sanctions.