UN convenes donors’ meeting on 24th: Rehabilitation, reconstruction
By Ihtasham ul Haque
ISLAMABAD, Oct 17: The United Nations has convened a meeting of donor agencies in Geneva on Oct 24 to assess the extent of damage caused by last week’s earthquake and to propose appropriate rehabilitation and reconstruction assistance.
“We will be informing the donors in Geneva as to what happened in Azad Kashmir and northern parts of Pakistan due to the deadly Oct 8 earthquake and we hope to get a positive response from the donors’ community,” Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said.
Talking to reporters here on Monday, the prime minister said that the initial focus of the Geneva meeting would be on strengthening relief and rescue operation which would then lead to huge rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts.
Mr Aziz, who was accompanied by IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato, said he had informed the visiting fund delegation that Pakistan was facing a huge challenge of rehabilitation and reconstruction and needed adequate support of international donor agencies and other institutions.
The IMF chief had earlier met President Gen Pervez Musharraf and then held a one-to-one meeting with the prime minister. Later, Mr Aziz and Mr Rato held a meeting which was attended by their aides.
Responding to a question, Mr Rato said that Pakistan might have to look into its defence expenditure in the aftermath of the disaster. “I think the defence expenditure has to be reassessed under these circumstances,” he added.
“Pakistan is confronting short-term challenges, including the need for emergency support and the need to rebuild in the areas affected by the earthquake,” he said. He added that the IMF would continue to provide policy advice and technical assistance to Pakistan.
He also said that “some temporary widening of the budget deficit may be unavoidable,” although the international community was providing assistance to Pakistan.
“Further tightening of monetary policy might, however, be necessary,” he said, adding that Pakistan was also confronted with the problem of sharp increases in international oil prices. The authorities, he said, had appropriately allowed a substantial pass-through of this increase into domestic prices for petroleum products to help safeguard the budgetary position.
Mr Rato said that acceleration of economic growth had been accompanied by a pick-up in inflation. Efforts to reduce the inflationary pressure and their initial success were welcome, he added.
“Over the medium-term, the key challenge for Pakistan is to sustain higher rates of economic growth and ensure that living standard was raised and poverty was reduced and this will require substantial increases in investment,” he said.
The strengthening of delivery of public services to the poor was a need which called for continuation of institutional reforms and more domestic resource mobilization to meet higher expenditure in these areas, he added.
