Senator Kamil Ali Agha, in his address at the 51st CPA Conference being held at Nadi, Fiji Islands, has underscored the need for a strong international facilitation to direct international capital flows, especially foreign direct investment (FDI), to the developing countries.
Senator Kamil Agha, who is leading Pakistani Parliamentary delegation at the conference, urged the developed countries to enhance Official Development Assistance and develop a transparent aid delivery system to reduce developing countries' debt and poverty.
The international assistance has not so far been able to make any significant dent in reducing poverty as the total number of the poor is still over 1.2 billion, he added.
Agha said the developing countries should, however, not rely on aid and external factors as they can do a lot through effective steps and internal fiscal reforms.
He gave the example of Pakistan which, following a credible strategy of debt reduction has succeeded in reducing the rising trend in external debt liabilities growing at a breakneck pace few years back.
During the last 5 years, the debt servicing liabilities have declined sharply from 64 percent of revenue to 26 percent. The better economic management in fiscal discipline are the factors behind Pakistan's success, he added.
Appreciating the selection of millennium development goals (MDGs) as the theme for this year's Commonwealth Parliamentarian's Conference, he said the elected representatives of both developing and developed countries have to play effective role if the MDGs are to succeed. He highlighted the huge aid and transfer of resources required for implementation of MDGs. A five-member delegation comprising three Senators and two MNAs is attending the Conference in which separate workshops are being held on MDGs.
Earlier, Senator Dr Abdullah Riaz addressed the workshop on HIV/AIDS and apprised the parliamentarians of other countries about the steps being taken in Pakistan for creating awareness and controlling spread of HIV/AIDS.