- Dr Muller invites Senator Dar to visit Germany
Pakistan and Germany on Thursday signed a Joint Declaration of Intent with the aim of further strengthening development cooperation between the two countries in three priority areas – governance, energy and economic development.
This was decided after a meeting between Federal Minister for Finance Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar and Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dr Gerd Muller here at the Prime Minister’s House.
Both the ministers discussed matters of mutual interest with particular focus on bilateral development cooperation between the two countries. Dr Muller invited Senator Dar to visit Germany and meet with various German business leaders to promote the investment and business opportunities in Pakistan.
Senator Dar welcomed the German minister and highlighted the historic ties between Pakistan and Germany. He appreciated cooperation and support of the German government for various development projects in Pakistan, including the recent equity participation by German development bank, KfW, in the Pakistan Microfinance Investment Company (PMIC).
The finance minister shared with the German minister that the government was now focused on attaining higher, sustainable and inclusive economic growth after having achieved macroeconomic stability in Pakistan. He said that Pakistan was focused on the promotion of financial and digital inclusion in the country.
In this regard, he highlighted the IT Park project in Islamabad that was being implemented with loan assistance from the Korean Exim Bank. Senator Dar emphasised that Pakistan has a liberal investment regime and invited German companies to invest in Pakistan, particularly in the automotive and solar PV sectors.
He suggested that German companies should explore the possibility of benefitting from the opportunities available in the Special Economic Zones being established. The German minister acknowledged Pakistan’s economic success story over the last three and a half years. He appreciated Pakistan’s efforts and sacrifices for addressing the challenges of terrorism and extremism, and the promotion of global peace.
He said that Germany was focused on continuing its economic and development initiatives in Pakistan. Dar offered Germany’s technical and research assistance for development projects in Pakistan, including technical support in the agriculture sector to achieve higher yields. At the end of the meeting, both the ministers reaffirmed the mutual commitment to further enhance and strengthen bilateral relations in existing and new areas.
According to a statement issued by the Germany Embassy, both the sides renewed their intention to continue their successful cooperation in order to meet Pakistan’s socio-economic development challenges, in coherence with Pakistan’s Vision 2025 and the internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
They shared the conviction that good governance was a key success factor for sustainable development. Both the sides look back at over half a century of successful development cooperation in the energy sector and to work further closely to improve access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy.
Germany congratulated the government of Pakistan on steady reform progress to promote a more enabling environment for job creation and sustainable income opportunities for all, in line with international social and environmental standards.
The German minister proffered the prospect of new funding for bilateral technical and financial cooperation. Including the advance notification of additional funds in December 2016, cooperation could reach a significant level of up to 109 million euros for the two-year period 2017 -2018.
Development cooperation between Pakistan and Germany goes back to 1961, with the funding volume to date totaling some three billion euros. Pakistan was thus one of Germany’s first partner countries.
