ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: The World Bank will extend $200 million to Pakistan to alleviate poverty, participants of the Micro-credit Summit held recently in New York told a news conference here on Wednesday.

They said the country had received a good response from bilateral donors and international funding agencies for generous financial and technical assistance to remove poverty.

Barrister Shahida Jamil, former minister and now personal representative of the first lady, Sehba Musharraf, Economic Affairs Secretary Dr Waqar Masood Khan, Women’s Division Secretary Perveen Agha, Kushhali Bank Chairman Ghalib Nishtar, Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) Senior Director Ahmad Jamal and National Rural Support Programme (NRSP) Deputy Director Dr Rashid Bajwa were present.

“We had earlier been offered $100 million by the World Bank and were told that we would shortly have another $200 million funding line to effectively alleviate poverty in Pakistan,” said Ahmad Jamal.

He said the World Bank was satisfied with the PPAF performance for achieving the objectives of alleviating pover-ty.

In reply to a question, Shahida Jameel said that Sehba Musharraf, who led the delegation, was assured that a number of international organizations would shortly send their representatives to forge active cooperation for poverty alleviation.

“A World Bank consultative group is coming to Pakistan soon to help increase micro-credit,” she said and added that another organization, Planet Finance International, was sending its team to offer internet services aimed at expanding micro-credit facilities in the country.

She said the summit was told that the government would reach 100 million people for micro-credit by 2005.

Ghalib Nishtar said the Asian Development Bank had decided to extend financial support to expand micro-credit facilities.

“Then we are going to have a bilateral meeting with the German government on Dec 13 to have financial support for the NWFP,” he said and added that a memorandum of understanding had been signed with International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for micro-credit expansion in Azad Kashmir. He said the USAID had hinted at the possibility of providing finances for Sindh and Balochistan.

The presence of US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Niell at the summit, Nishtar said, proved to be very fruitful for micro-credit expansion in various countries, including Pakistan.

He said 90,000 poor households had been reached by his bank with micro-credit facilities in 2002. “We will complete our target of extending micro-credit to 100,000 households before the end of the year,” he said.

The idea of empowering women through micro-credit was appreciated at the summit, attended by 3,000 participants from 110 countries, he said.