March 8, 2006	Wednesday	Safar 7, 1427

KARACHI, March 7: Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad on Tuesday praised the cooperation extended by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the development of Sindh, and expressed the hope that the assistance would continue for progress and prosperity of the province.

He was talking to an ADB delegation, which was led by Mr Stephen Sedgwick, at the Governor’s House.

He said owing to the reforms programme introduced by President Pervez Musharraf and the continuity of policies, the situation in all sectors had improved and the benefits of social and economic development had started reaching masses.

The delegation is on a two-day visit to the city to ascertain progress of the ongoing development projects initiated with the ADB’s financial assistance and look into the possibilities of cooperation in future projects.

The delegation would present its report to the ADB’s Board of Governors.

The governor told the delegation that Sindh was the only province where most of the projects were being executed with the ADB’s financial assistance.

During the meeting, the Mega City Project worth US$400 million also came under discussion.

Additional Chief Secretary Planning and Development Ghulam Sarwar Khero brief the ADB team about the ADB-funded projects.

Sindh Planning and Development Minister Shoaib Bukhari, Adviser on Finance M. A. Jalil, Adviser on Local Government Waseem Akhtar, Chief Secretary Fazlur Rahman, City Nazim Mustafa Kamal and others senior officials were present on the occasion.

MEETS CHIEF MINISTER: At the Chief Minister’s House, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim told the team that an amount of Rs7 billion is being spent on the ongoing schemes relating to education, roads, villages’ uplift, health and coastal development. Completion of these schemes would put Sindh on the road to progress, he added.

Dr Arbab spoke of the rich natural deposits in Sindh, and pointed out that 62 per cent of the country’s oil production came from this province which also possessed vast coal reserves.

He told the ADB officials that the size of Sindh’s ADP had been increased from Rs7,000 million to Rs24,000 million. The provincial government was putting in vigorous efforts to raise the literacy rate to 54 per cent, he added.

He said that under the five-year education promotion programme, four million children had so far been enrolled in the schools of 23 Sindh districts, whereas 179 schools had been upgraded to middle level and 240 converted to English medium.

Dr Arbab made mention of three mega projects envisaging the establishment of an emergency accident centre at the Civil Hospital Karachi and an Institute of Medical Sciences in Gambat at a cost of Rs1,438 million, adding that medical equipment worth Rs564 million were being provided to all government hospitals in Sindh. He said that an amount of Rs795 million had been allocated to the health sector.

Making mention of the Moenjodaro, Kirthar National Park, Haleji Lake, Gorakh Hill Station, Kot Diji Fort, etc., he said that developing such spots for promotion of tourism was under consideration. There are 126 such places in Sindh which are under the control of federal government and talks are under way for transfer of these places to the provincial government.

An amount of Rs200 million has been allocated for the development of the historical places.

He informed the visitors that the provincial health department had 10,076 doctors, 1,968 nurses, 5,960 paramedical staff and 25,622 other personnel were at its disposal.

Leader of the ADB delegation said that the bank’s cooperation with Sindh government in various sectors would continue. He expressed satisfaction over the progress of various ongoing development projects.

Later, the chief minister hosted a luncheon for the delegation—APP/PPI