Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is likely to attend a high-level international conference on the implementation of the international decade for action "water for life" 2005-2015 which will take place on June 9-11 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The main goal of the Decade is to promote efforts to fulfil international commitments made on water and water-related issues by the year 2015. These commitments also include the development goals contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, particularly, to halve the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
"We have invited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to participate in the conference and hope he will attend it to achieve the sustainable development of water resources, calling upon member countries, UN system institutions, including the "UN-Water" and other organisations to comprehensively evaluate the progress achieved in the implementation of the Decade and continue taking steps for achieving internationally agreed water-related goals," Tajikistan Ambassador Sherali S Jononov s said while briefing journalists here on Thursday.
The primary goal of the Conference is a comprehensive discussion of the issues of implementation of the International Decade for Action "Water for Life", 2005-2015, which will later play a crucial role in conducting a comprehensive review of the implementation of the International Decade while bringing its results to the notice of the wider international community.
He said that Ban Ki-Moon, the secretary General of the United Nations (UN), would deliver a speech. Sherali said that during the conference, progress on the objectives achieved would also be discussed and measures would be suggested to implement the objectives which had not been achieved. He further said that as many as 17 Pakistani companies had expressed keen interest in the conference which is taking place for better water management. "It will be message by world community to mange water otherwise it will be too late," he said adding that all resolutions had been adopted by support of Pakistan. "Pakistan has been supporting us on water issues in the UN," he added. He said that Pakistan and Tajikistan have been working on Casa-1000 MW power import project which will be completed in 2018. "We will be supplying clean and cheaper energy to Pakistan through this project," he added. He said that a process of tendering would be completed in the next five months and this project would connect the region. He said that Casa-1000 power import project was a dream five years back but it had become a reality now.
He also appreciated the China-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC) and said that it would provide the cheapest route for transportation of goods to Central Asian states. "We are pleased that the government is developing a new road network which would also create jobs and change the region," he added. "We will also sign transit trade agreement soon with Pakistan and Afghanistan to enhance trade," he said, adding that bilateral trade volume between Pakistan and Tajikistan was $100 million last year and trade balance was in favour of Pakistan. He said that both countries had pledged to enhance trade volume to half billion dollars over the next five years.