ISLAMABAD – The government of Japan has extended grant assistance worthJapanese Yen 2,370 million (equivalent to US$21.36 million) to Pakistan fortwo projects of Installation of Weather Surveillance Radar in Multan Cityand Human Resource Develop Scholarship.
It would provide grant of Yen 2,042 million (US$18.40 million) forInstallation of Weather Surveillance Radar in Multan City and Yen328million (US$2.95 million) for Human Resource Develop Scholarship.
The official notes for the grants were signed and exchanged here by AhmadHanif Orakzai, Additional Secretary-I, Economic Affairs Division andTakashi Kurai, Ambassador of Japan.Grant agreement for the projects of Installation of Weather SurveillanceRadar in Multan city and Human Resource Develop Scholarship were alsosigned on the occasion by Yasuhiro Tojo, Chief JICA Pakitan Offfice andSyed Mujtaba Hussain, Joint Secretary of Economic Affairs Division.The signing ceremony was witnessed by Federal Minister for Finance, Revenueand Economic Affairs, Asad Umar and State Minister for Foreign Affairs ofJapan, Kazuyuki Nakane.Speaking on the occasion, Asad Umar acknowledged the support of Japan forextending economic and technical assistance to Pakistan in various sectors.
He said that Pakistan and Japan were having cordial relations since longand Japan had been trade and investment partner of Pakistan and wasproviding assistance to the country. “Japan in every respect is our partnerand friend,” he remarked.
He said that the two projects were very much close to the priorities of newPakistan government. He said at a time when Pakistan was ranked as the 7thhighly vulnerable country from the impacts of climate change, the projectfinancing from Japan was very important in this particular sector.He said that human resource develop was also among the priorities of thegovernment and extending help in this sector would help Pakistan promoteeducation and skill.
On the occasion, State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, KazuyukiNakane, said that since the diplomatic relationship between the twocountries was established in 1952, Japan has been supporting Pakistan’sstable and sustainable growth.
“Under the strong leadership of the new Prime Minister Imran Khan alongwith the leadership for economic development, particularly, the new FinanceMinister Asad Umar, we believe that ‘Naya Pakistan’ will be definitelyrealized with relevant measures to be taken by the new government,” he said.
He expressed the hope that these two projects would be of some help forfurther development of Pakistan and contribute to further strengthen thefriendly relationship and cooperation between Japan and Pakistan.
He also felicitated Asad Umar on assuming the charges of Federal Ministerfor Finance.He said that Japan would strongly support the government in realizing thedream of Naya Pakistan.
It is pertinent to mention here that the installation of surveillanceweather radar would help Pakistan to improve the Pakistan MeteorologicalDepartment’s (PMD) capabilities in meteorological observation, weatherforecasting and dissemination of warnings through the installation ofsophisticated radar system.
This will largely contribute to the mitigation of damages caused by naturaldisasters and reduce extensive damages to agricultural products andtransportation.
Likewise, the project of Human Resource Development Scholarships wouldstrengthen the government’s administrative capacities in the country,through providing opportunities to obtain the master’s degree to the youngcapable government officials who are expected to play leadership roles incontributing the socio-economic development of the country.