The UK government will double its assistance for Pakistan up to 480 million pounds by 2011. The UK assistance will continue to focus on health, good governance and reconstruction of earthquake-hit areas. This was stated by British Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander in a meeting with Finance Minister Syed Naveed Qamar here on Thursday.
Douglas and his team held bilateral discussions with Pakistani authorities on matters relating to fight against poverty in Pakistan and British government's overall Country Assistance Plan.
It was appreciated that the British Secretary of State announced outline of the Country Assistance Plan focusing GoP over the forthcoming five years. This would enable Pakistan to be the second largest recipient of UK aid programme by 2011.
There will be an additional emphasis on assistance for border areas as well as on education, with more than 250 million pounds being made available to bring five million children into schools and to increase training opportunities for young people.
The British Secretary said that the UK has long been a great friend of Pakistan. The two countries are united by a shared history and strong cultural and economic ties. Britain is committed to helping Pakistan's efforts in fight against poverty for many years. The UK's aim is to continue help to improve poor people's lives in key areas to ensure that they have access to better healthcare, schools and employment opportunities.
Naveed Qamar acknowledged DFID strategy, which is marked by a common approach of identifying short and medium term priorities to fight poverty in Pakistan and help achieve the target of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
He added that Pakistan remembers UK's timely and generous assistance of 128 million pounds for the relief and reconstruction of the October 2005 earthquake affected areas. As part of its commitment, the UK government will also provide 50 million pounds to the State Bank of Pakistan to support a new drive to open up financial services to poor people - to encourage wealth and job creation by making available loans and access to bank accounts.
An MoU to this effect was signed on behalf of GoP by State Bank of Pakistan Governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar and British Secretary of State on behalf of DFID of the UK government.
In his opening statement on the occasion, the finance minister said that Pakistan and UK have now institutionalised the development co-operation in the form of a unique 10 years' Development Partnership Arrangements.
Through this partnership, the government of UK has doubled the quantum of its annual assistance up to 160 million pounds for 2008-09 and onwards, and the bilateral relations with the UK are marked with goodwill and mutual trust and expected to increase as UK and Pakistan go along.
Earlier during one-on-one meeting with UK Secretary of State, the finance minister said that the government currently is focusing on its privatisation portfolios, besides widening its domestic and foreign investment plans. Measures are under way to attain economic stability by providing impetus to agriculture and manufacturing sectors. The government's overall objective is to reduce poverty, encourage its citizenry towards self-development and finally attain economic targets, he added.