ISLAMABAD, Feb 7: Canadian International Development Agency (Cida) has appreciated the country’s economic performance during the last two years and expressed hope that the social sector would be uplifted soon.

“Pakistan has excelled in macroeconomic indicators, growth and reduction of debt,” said Cida Development Counsellor Rolando Bohamandos, speaking at a convention on “Forging partnerships for sustainable development,” organized by Lead, Pakistan, on Friday.

“The government is now working on a poverty reduction strategy paper and to me it is the new five-year development programme for Pakistan,” he said.

Mr Bohamandos said most of the policies in terms of working at poverty and rural development were based on public-private partnership, and non-governmental organizations and civil society were the key players in the area.

He felt the need for legislation to facilitate the activities of the institutions.

He suggested that the agriculture, health and water ministries should interact at policy level. “Unless you have a way for the ministries to communicate at the policy level, it will be very difficult to take an effective and sustainable look at environment situation in Pakistan,” he said.

Planning Commission’s Joint Chief Economist Aqdas Kazmi urged the industrialized countries to extend 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product to the developing countries as committed by them at a summit in 1960.

“If that commitment was fulfilled then most of the problems of the developing countries would have been solved,” he said and added that only 0.25 per cent of the GDPs was being extended in external assistance by those countries.

He said water had been given top priority by the Planning Commission but the paucity of funds was creating problems. He urged the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and others that “on the water development they have to be much more forthcoming.”

He urged the developed countries to transfer technology to the poor countries for enhancing productivity, particularly in agriculture, energy and engineering.

Dr Parvez Houdbhoy of Quaid-i-Azam University expressed the need for raising the standard of education.

Fareeha Zafar of Society for the Advancement of Education, Lahore, expressed the need for checking the dropout rate at schools.

Director-general of Hydrocarbon Development Institute of Pakistan, Hilal Raza, said the governments were shedding their role in business and concentrating more on the social sector and the strategic areas.

—APP