NEW YORK, March 17: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said here on Saturday the new joint Japanese-Pakistan Economic Forum, set up during President Musharraf’s visit, would consider new Official Development Assistance (ODA) for Pakistan and the reduction of interest rates on Japanese loans to Pakistan.

Shaukat, who flew in directly from Tokyo to New York en route to Monterey, Mexico, to attend the global conference on Financing for Development told Dawn: “We have asked the Japanese government and it has agreed to consider reduction in interest rates on loans given to Pakistan,” and added: “They (Japanese government) cannot write off debt; it’s not in their constitution.”

Describing the visit as being extremely “fruitful and productive,” he said: “We were able to explain our economic and reform agenda to all five stakeholders in the government” — the Japanese government, the Diet, the Japanese private sector, the Japanese press and the Pakistani business community in Japan.

The new joint Japan-Pakistan Economic Forum, Shaukat went on to say: “Provides an institutional structure to the new relationship and the Japanese will open fresh export credit for Pakistan.”

He said in the meeting with the major Japanese corporation heads the president asked them to invest more in Pakistan. In that context, the minister pointed out that there was the Pakistan-Japan business forum which was very active to bring more companies into Pakistan.

“The best bet we have is to get the Japanese business already in Pakistan to increase their investment ..... We also asked them to look at Pakistan to use as a base to manufacture goods or assemble goods so that they could export these from Pakistan to Middle East, Central Asia, Africa and other countries,” Shaukat said.