ISLAMABAD, July 5: Federal Minister for Health Mohammad Nasir Khan here on Tuesday said the government had focused its efforts on expanding preventive health-care coverage in the country. He was speaking at a roundtable hosted by the ministry of health to review the status of different national health-care programmes, identify the hurdles in their implementation and suggest remedies.

Representatives of World Bank, World Health Organization, United Nations Population Fund, United States Agency for International Development, Canadian International Development Agency, German NGO and GTZ and Japan International Cooperation Agency were also present.

The minister urged the donors agencies to engage in a closer consultation and coordination both among themselves and with the federal government agencies to ensure optimum utilization of their assistance.

Referring to the recent initiatives for the control of hepatitis and provision of safe drinking water, he said the federal government had increased budgetary allocations for the health sector to nearly one per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The representatives of the donor agencies assured the minister of their continued and enhanced financial and technical commitment to the development of a comprehensive preventive health care infrastructure in the country.