The Regional Program Manager of United States Agency International Development (USAID) Nazir Ahmed Essani said that USAID under agribusiness project want to assist Pakistan in live stock and horticulture value chain to increase the rate of trade on national and international level and aims to create 13 million jobs which will reduce the inflation rate and help in poverty alleviation.
Addressing at the seminar held here on Wednesday at Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (HCCI) Nazir said that Pakistan's 23 percent GDP depends on agriculture in which live stocks share is 50 percent, he further said that, there are immense opportunities for the development of agriculture, fisheries and their value chain clustering.
He said that 90 million dollar grant will be dispersed over to Pakistan through agriculture business support fund. The project must be based on agriculture sector and include to strengthen processing, marketing and product diversification and value addition activities. He further added that one of the key components of the project is cost sharing grants program, the project proposal on prescribed performa may be sent to USAID till 30th June and experts after examining the project proposal will ask for a detailed budget etc.
Earlier, the Senior Vice President of HCCI Mr Turab Ali Khoja addressed the seminar and said that USAID agribusiness project will help to reduce the inflation rate in Hyderabad region he continued, USAID agribusiness project fund is non-profitable project which will improve economy and create job opportunities. He asked business community to get help from USAID agribusiness support fund. The seminar was attended by Vice President Abdul Saleem Arain, Former Vice President Mr Ziauddin, Members, Syed Yawar Ali Shah, Mr Abdul Sattar Khan, Zia Masroor,and Masroor Iqbal.