German Development Cooperation: Euro 125.7 Million support for FC/TC 2012, FC/TC 2013 signed

Secretary EAD, Tariq Bajwa and German Ambassador Ina Lepel here on Friday signed four Financing Agreements i.e. Financial Cooperation Agreement 2012 & 2013 (Euro 91 million) and Technical Cooperation Agreement 2012 & 2013 (Euro 34.7 million), totaling 125.7 million Euros for development cooperation to Pakistan. In this amount  98.7 million Euros are given as grant and 27 million Euros as loan. 

The areas focused for cooperation include governance, health, education, support to TDPs, vocational training etc.

Acknowledging the role of Germany in helping Pakistan in achieving sustainable socio-economic objectives, Finance Minister, Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar stated that Pakistan highly values Pak-German partnership dating back to 1961. He emphasized the need to not only enhance bilateral cooperation in trade, energy and social sectors as well as promoting bilateral trade and investment and more people to people contacts. 

The German Ambassador highlighted 56 years of successful German-Pakistani cooperation with the affirmation to continue the same for mutual benefit of the two countries. She also stressed Germany’s lasting support to Pakistan in Health, Energy, Technical & Vocational Training, Sustainable Development, support to TDPs and Refugees. 

The signing ceremony was preceded by a meeting between Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and German Ambassador Ina Lepel. Both sides on the occasion expressed the resolve to continue working together to enhance bilateral ties in different areas of mutual interest. 

Senior officials of Finance Division, Economic Affairs Division and Embassy of Germany attended the signing ceremony.