The European Union is introducing an 80 million euro technical assistant programme for ensuring budgetary support for district governance and community development in Malakand Division.
In this connection a one-day dissemination workshop was arranged in Peshawar on Wednesday to discuss salient features of the programme with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government and the KP Finance Department.
KP Finance Minister Humayun Khan was chief guest on the occasion while EU Ambassador to Pakistan Lars Gunner, members of the EU delegation Jos Jonkers, Berrend de Groot, KP lawmakers Qazi Wajid, Mahmood Zeb Khan, Bacha Saleh, Secretary Finance Sahibzada Saeed Ahmad and officials of the KP government also attended the workshop.
The finance minister said Malakand Division was the worst-affected region by acts of terror and the EU’s selection of such a division was highly laudable. He said it was their strong belief and part of their PCNA strategy that to mitigate the causes of conflict they had to devise a public financial management system that could respond to the needs of the citizens in a transparent way. He said they knew that the participation of citizens in the nation-building activities was very crucial to bring the state closer to them. He said they had introduced many innovations in the PFM systems like out-based budgeting, pre-budget consultations and conditional grants to the districts.
The finance minister urged the district administration to take advantages of the window opportunity provided in the shape of 80 million euros and plan, manage and execute these resources in such a manner that they result in changing the quality of life of the people residing in Malakand division.
The EU ambassador expressed his pleasure to introduce the programme for the larger interest of the terror-stricken area and said that the EU would provide 64 million euros for budgetary support while 7.5 million euros for social mobilisation in the region. Moreover, it would also give 7.3 million euros for capacity building of the government departments and 1.2 million euros for monitoring and evaluation side-by-side with audit and visibility. The provincial ministers lauded the EU goodwill gesture in the shape of financial funding and urged the EU team to continue to support the downtrodden people of Malakand Division in letter and spirit.
Secretary Finance Saeed Ahmad threw light on the basic concept of the programme and its constructive effects on the socio-economic development in Malakand Division. He termed the programme very necessary for backing the affected social life in Swat, Shangla, Buner, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Chitral and Malakand District of the division.
EU provides 80m euros for Malakand division
