The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been a major development partner of Pakistan and its contribution towards the country's socio-economic progress will be long remembered since it had always stood by Pakistan, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said here on Wednesday. He was talking to ADB Country Manager Marshuk Ali Shah, who called on him at the Prime Minister House.
The prime minister appreciated the support extended by the bank to the reform agenda pursued by the government and their expertise and financial support for programmes like access to justice, micro-credit, agricultural lending through Zarai Tarraqiati Bank and capital market reforms.
He said the ADB support had helped Pakistan in taking major strides in the economy and achieving high growth.
Presently, Shaukat said, the ADB is lending $1.2 billion and has, thus, become one of the major donors of Pakistan.
He said the ADB has a tremendous future and appreciated the institution's role in tsunami-hit countries and hoped that it would provide help in establishing an early warning system in Asia.
Talking about the progress made by Pakistan, he said a lot of progress could be seen in the social indicators and this year Pakistan has allocated over 16 percent more than the previous year for health, education, gender programming and population welfare sectors.
The prime minister said the best way to attack poverty is to create new employment opportunities and that is exactly what the government is trying to do.
Marshuk said there is a lot of goodwill for Pakistan in the ADB and the bank maintained high-level of co-operation with Pakistan and is now looking forward to financing programmes like "one village one product", rural modernisation, micro-credit, etc.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Salman Shah, and Minister of State for Finance Omar Ayub were also present on the occasion.