ADB signs poverty reduction agreement

Pakistan and the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed an agreement on Monday aiming to reduce poverty by half by the year 2011, government and bank officials said. Myoung-Ho Shin, Vice President of ADB, told reporters in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, that the agreement supported Pakistan's long-terms goals of attaining universal primary school enrollment, reducing the population growth rate to less than 1.6 percent and infant mortality rate to less than 30 per 1000 births, and increase the average life expectancy to at least 69 years. "We are committed to give US $2.4 billion during 2003/05," Shin said after the signing ceremony. The ADB has provided project and programme loans worth about US $800 million to Pakistan in 2001. He said the figures for future assistance were indicative and could be higher or lower depending on the performance of the projects. "The poverty reduction partnership agreement sets out our shared vision of drastically reducing poverty in Pakistan," Shin added. According to an ADB statement the medium-term aim of the agreement is to promote good governance in Pakistan and generate sustainable job opportunities. The programme will also help support human development; promote gender equity; support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and encourage private sector development. The statement said poverty rose to 32 percent in 1998-99 from 27 percent in the early 1990s. Unofficial estimates of poverty are much higher with some experts saying it could be as high as 40 percent. Pakistan's Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz told reporters after the signing that the government wanted to reduce poverty to 15 percent of the population by the end of a 10-year plan in 2011. "We have been receiving close to one billion dollars from the ADB and we hope this average will be maintained," Aziz noted. He said the best way to fight poverty was to increase the economic growth rate and the government had set a target of 4.5 percent growth of gross domestic product for the year 2002/03 (July-June). ADP programmes and projects are focused on health and population; education; water supply in urban and rural areas, agriculture development and micro finance. "It has also been agreed that the government and the ADB will promote public sector partnership with civil society, NGOs and the private sector and support monitoring and constituency building for reform programmes and projects," a Pakistani government statement said.