July 18, 2002	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 7, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, July 17: Mark D. Ward, new USAID mission director in Pakistan, said on Wednesday that the agency’s new project portfolio would be more focused and would draw largely upon the local expertise.

“We would engage local expertise and Pakistani accounting firms as far as possible to monitor programmes here,” he said at his first press briefing here.

The mission, Mr Ward said, would help build capacity to develop new legislators, who understood their responsibility to do the best job. He added that the new USAID portfolio would also focus on strengthening democratic institutions and civil society by supporting think-tanks and political parties as players in the democratic process.

He said, “The devolution concept is very exciting for us and now we will be more certain that money will go where it is meant to go.” He believed that it would ensure a more accountable mechanism.

The agency would get involved more local partners and experts, he said, adding that more than half of the staff for the mission would comprise the locals.

The USAID mission chief said the United States’ commitment to Pakistan and its development was “very strong now”. He said Pakistan was one of the two countries, where the agency “will have much more robust programmes — Afghanistan, being the other country.

Initially the programme will focus on the education and health sectors at the national level, starting with Balochistan and Sindh.

Replying to a question, he said the USAID scholarship scheme for Pakistani students had been very successful, and hoped that it would be revived.

The top US official said his country would increase aid to Pakistan by almost two-thirds in recognition of its backing for the war against terrorism, adds AFP.

He said the US Agency for International Development hoped to raise the current level of support from $50 million to $80 million in the next US financial year, starting on October 1.

“We are planning a budget of $80 million for the next year,” Mr Ward told newsmen, making the announcement two days after re-opening the USAID office in Pakistan after a seven-year closure.