The United States Congress is currently considering expanded aid programme in Pakistan. Out of $300 million in development assistance annually, $150 million will be for USAID development.
The USAID aid programme in Pakistan is one of the largest in the world, and its assistance budget for this year is $75 million. The total spending on these projects is about $ 8 billion.
"Many Pakistanis in leadership positions across the country today received USAID scholarships to pursue higher education in the US," US Consul General in Karachi Douglas C. Rohn noted.
The agency provided $ 125 million in grant assistance for major projects in education, healthcare, economic opportunity and governance since its return to Pakistan in 2002, he said while addressing members of Indus Rotary Club here.
The US Consul General said $ 10 million Pakistan Science Foundation project provides means by which products and technologies developed in country's laboratories could be brought to market.
A $ 12 million project with Faisalabad Agricultural University is for faculty development and commercialisation of locally developed technologies. Another $ 10 million project with the NWFP University focuses on women's issues in Federally Administered Tribal Areas, he stated.
A $ 3 million Sciences & Technology Agreement with US Department of State will provide Pakistan with potentially extremely beneficial programmes by offering success to world-wide technological systems.
Rohn said Sindh and Balochistan are already benefiting from USAID projects. An education project will provide in-service training to 45000 teachers in the two provinces, 15000 of whom have already been trained.
45 masters-level teacher trainers and school administrators returned from 4-month programme in US and 75 will depart in September.