KARACHI, March 7: Japan is willing to assist Pakistan in its infrastructure development strategy to cater to the requirements of high growth.

Speaking at the 3rd Pakistan-Japan joint business meeting here on Monday, Japanese parliamentary secretary of economy, trade and industry, Akihiko Yamamoto, said Pakistan needed to upgrade its infrastructure, including construction of highways, availability of water supply, electricity, telecommunications, development of automobile, textile sectors and human resource, to meet the demand of higher growth regime.

Mr Yamamoto said his government was considering Pakistan's request for the resumption of yen loan to finance its infrastructure development requirements. "This request is under consideration and it is a matter of time only. I hope the decision on this request will be taken as quickly as possible," he added.

He said Japan would like to cooperate in improving quality and human resource development in the automobile sector, adding that it was heartening to note that production capacity of the automobile sector had increased and the industry produced 100,000 units in one year, showing a double-digit growth.

Mr Yamamoto said his government would be happy to cooperate in projects like textile cities, especially in the production of value-added products at lower cost with high quality.

Referring to bilateral trade and investment volume, he said it was disappointing that the two-way trade had declined from 10.4 to six per cent, while Japanese investment in Pakistan fell from $100m to only $15m. He was of the view that the trade ties were not reflective of the old relations between Japan and Pakistan.

He said the business meeting would help in further boosting trade and economic ties between the countries. State Bank Governor Dr Ishrat Husain said Pakistan was offering a bright opportunity of attracting foreign investment due to its strategic location in the region.

He said after the improvement of conditions in Afghanistan, Pakistan was offering a shortest possible route to central Asia and western China through the Gwadar Port to market Japanese products to these markets.

He said the ADB was assisting Pakistan in the development of road network from the Gwadar Port to central Asian republics and China. About macroeconomic indicators, Dr Ishrat said the parliament had passed a fiscal discipline law, restricting governments not to exceed the borrowing limit from three per cent of the GDP.

The SBP governor said Pakistan was offering the lowest lending rate in the entire South Asia, falling from 16 per cent to an average of less than five per cent. -APP