The fight against poverty in Pakistan is to be stepped up with a doubling of UK assistance to £480 million by 2011, International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander announced.
On a visit to Islamabad, Mr Alexander published the UK's new Country Plan, outlining help for the Government of Pakistan. This will make Pakistan the recipient of the UK's second largest aid programme worldwide by 2011. UK assistance will continue to focus on health - including the battle against diseases like TB and polio - and on good governance and earthquake reconstruction.
But there will now be an additional emphasis on assistance to the border areas as well as on education, with more than £250 million being made available to bring five million children into school and to increase training opportunities for young people.
advertisement
Mr Alexander said: "The United Kingdom has long been a great friend of Pakistan. Our two countries are united by a shared history and strong cultural and economic ties.
"We have been committed to helping Pakistan's efforts in the fight against poverty for many years. Our aim is to continue to help improve poor people's lives in key areas, making sure they have access to better healthcare, schools and employment opportunities."
The announcement was welcomed by the Pakistan Minister for Finance, Syed Naveed Qamar, who said: "We greatly acknowledge DFID's strategy, which is marked by a common approach of identifying short and medium term priorities to fight poverty in Pakistan and help achieve the target of the Millennium Development Goals.
"We also remember their timely and generous assistance of £128 million extended for the relief and reconstruction of the October 2005 earthquake affected areas."
As part of its commitment, the UK Government will provide £50 million to the State Bank of Pakistan to support a new drive to open up financial services to poor people - to encourage wealth and job creation by making available loans and access to bank accounts.
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
Comment
