Thirteen developed countries and donor agencies have announced long-term partnership entails with financial assistance for improving social sectors including health, education, energy, agriculture, local government, environment, potable water and social justice. This announcement was made by donors at a conference-cum-consultative meeting at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House, federal capital. The Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak chaired the meeting.
The meeting held threadbare discussion on the provincial government evolved Strategic Development Partnership Framework (SDPF) in consultation with the donor agencies. It is the first important development and achievement of the provincial government after the provincial autonomy given to the provinces under 18th amendment to develop direct contacts with the world community and make agreements for financial and technical assistance to reform social sectors.
The Speaker, Khyber Pakhtunmkhwa Assembly, Asad Qaiser, Provincial Senior Ministers Siraj-ul-Haq, Sikandar Khan Sherpao, Shahram Khan Tarakai, Assembly members and leaders of the coalition government, Chief Secretary Shahzad Arbad, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Khalid Pervez and all other administrative secretaries were also present on this occasion while the representatives of the donors included AusAid, DFID, Embassy of Germany, GIZ, Embassy of Japan, JICA, Norway, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, USAID, Swiss Development Co-operation (SDC), European Union and CIDA.
On this occasion the representatives of donors agencies in their speeches reposed full confidence in the reforms agenda and partnership framework (SDPF) of the KP government saying that the donors fully understood this framework and would whole-heartedly cooperate with the KP government because it was formulated with mutual consultation of two months prolong period.
They said the donors could not well cooperate with the past regimes due to some reservations including ambiguity in their policies and ill planning. They especially eulogised the leadership of the Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and his team. In his address the Chief Minister, Pervez Khatak thanked the donors specially the developed countries for their encouraging attitude towards the provincial government and assured they would make its agenda of change a success story that would be more transparent, accountable and efficient to deliver for poor in all spheres of life.
He said they have already went ahead on many reforms including Right to Information Law, Accountability Commission and a unique Local Government system aimed at ameliorating lot of the masses and providing all basic facilities at the gross roots level. He said that reforms in health, education, urban development, industry, technical education, energy and power would emerge as game changer in Pakistan. He said that the government hereby gives full assurance both to its people and world community that they will remain on track while he would personally monitor the progress on partnership framework. The Chief Minister especially appreciated the hard work of P&D Department for consultation with donor countries and agencies and chalking out a flawless partnership framework that was liked by the donors themselves.
The Senior Ministers Siraj-ul-Haq, Sikandar Sherpao, Shahram Tarrakai, Chief Secretary Shehzad Arbab, ACS Khalid Pervez and Chief Economist Shahab Khan in their deliberations appealed the donors to extend full support in the start of journey of the KP government for reforming the social sectors and bringing about a change to be example for all the country and would also contribute in global goodwill and fraternity. The Additional Secretary Economic Affairs Division and representative of federal government also appreciated donors' partnership of KP government terming it exemplary for all the country saying they are glad to see the provinces going economically strong with the suggestion to focus equally on tourism and fisheries sectors as well.
