International Donors give a $ 5 bn smile to Pak

Categorized | Political

Posted on 17 April 2009 by ashok

Billion dollar smile: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari at the Tokyo Donors Meet

TOKYO: International donors pledged more than five billion dollars Friday to stabilise strife-torn Pakistan, aid conference co-chairs Japan and the World Bank said in a statement, reports Dawn quoting agencies reports.

’Development partners pledged new financing for Pakistan totaling more than five billion US dollars over the next two years,’ the statement said at the end of the one-day conference in Tokyo.

The United States and Japan earlier said they pledged one billion dollars each over two years, the European Union promised 640 million dollars over four years, while media reports said Saudi Arabia had committed 700 million dollars.

The funds would provide ‘additional support to social safety nets, human development and pro-poor development expenditures,’ they said.

The 40 countries and groups at the meeting also reaffirmed their commitment to existing programmes worth more than 15 billion US dollars for ongoing and medium-term development initiatives, the conference statement said.

’The actions of development partners included financial support, but also broader support for development and stability in the regional context of Pakistan and its neighbours,’ it said.

The move comes as President Zardari addressed a high profile meeting of donors reiterating Pakistan’s commitment to fighting terrorism.

’We are willing to fight. Despite the fact that I lost the mother of my children, I have taken up this challenge, as the President of Pakistan … to lead Pakistan out of these difficult times,’ Zardari, the widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, told the gathering.

’I am hoping, and with all humility, asking of the world to help us fight this tremendous challenge, which not only do we face, but it doesn’t end on my border,’ he said in comments departing significantly from a prepared speech.

’If we lose, you lose. If we lose, the world loses.’

Pakistan is central to US President Barack Obama’s plan for South Asia, which includes trying to stabilise Afghanistan where Taliban militants – many operating from lawless enclaves in northwest Pakistan – have thrown that effort into doubt.

Zardari gave a gloomy account of that situation.

’It is a terrain where no forces in the world or no armies of the world have never won before,’ he said. ‘Even today after eight years, I am sorry to share with you … I don’t see all of us winning this war. War as it is is not a ‘win proposition’.’

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, who met Zardari for talks on Thursday, said he was impressed by the president’s resolve.

’I am convinced that the strong commitment by Pakistan itself will strengthen the resolve of the international community to support the government of Pakistan, which continues to face difficulties,’ Aso told the gathering.

’We can not stabilise Afghanistan without stabilising Pakistan and the opposite is also true,’ Aso said. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki echoed that view. ’We feel and we believe that Pakistan is serious to combatting against terrorism,’ he told reporters.

However, Zardari made no mention of economic reforms the IMF and foreign investors say are vital to get Pakistan’s economy back on track.

Pakistan needs to focus on controlling its budget in the near-term with tax reforms and securing revenues so authorities could then focus on longer-term issues such as reducing poverty, Adnan Mazarei, IMF assistant director for the Middle East and Central Asia department, told Reuters on Thursday.

Pakistan was expected to present a wish-list of projects worth $30 billion that it wants to see implemented over the next 10 years. The projects include hydro-electric dams, roads, and projects aimed at improving security in its violence-plagued northwest on the Afghan border.

But EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said a 10-year commitment was too long for donors.

’At the same time, I understand the Pakistani government wants to say, ‘We have a big challenge and this challenge will not go away tomorrow or the day after tomorrow’,’ she told Reuters on Thursday.