Pakistan to seek 30 billion dollars from Friends of Pakistan

Mar 31, 2009, 15:26 GMT

Islamabad - Pakistan will ask the Friends of Pakistan (FoP) forum to provide 30 billion dollars of assistance over a period of 10 years when the group meets in Tokyo on April 17, a senior Pakistani government official said on Monday.

Sardar Aseef Ahmed Ali, the deputy chairman of Pakistan's Planning Commission, told reporters his country would seek 22 billion dollars in financial assistance and another 8 billion dollars in foreign direct investment during the upcoming ministerial level meeting of the FoP.

The FoP includes the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the United States, China, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Turkey, Australia, Japan, Kuwait, Qatar and Italy. The United Nations and European Union are also in the group.

The FoP aims at providing financial aid to Pakistan so that the nuclear-armed country can improve its deteriorating economy and eventually deal with the problem of growing Islamic militancy.

'Most of the development projects will be completed over the next five years, while a few of them would be completed in 10 years,' Ali said, adding that, out of a total of 22 billion dollars in assistance sought, Islamabad hopes to receive between 20 and 25 per cent of that assistance in the form of grants.

'There is connect between terrorism and growing menace of poverty and we are going to ask our Western allies to provide us grants for combating poverty and improving social sector indicators,' he added.