ISLAMABAD, March 22: Japan has restored its $400 million annual assistance to Pakistan and a high-level Japanese political mission will arrive here next month to ascertain the development needs of the country, says outgoing Japanese Ambassador to Pakistan Nobuaki Tanaka.

“Our yen loan package of about $400 million annual assistance, which was discontinued in 1998, has been fully resumed. Japan plans to help complete Pakistan’s important development projects, including the Indus highway programme,” he added.

Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, Mr Tanaka, who has been appointed as new United Nations Under Secretary General for Disarmament and Nuclear Non-proliferation, said that Pakistan and Japan had decided to strengthen their existing political and economic ties aimed at fulfilling Islamabad’s genuine needs in various fields.

“And the next agenda for Pakistan is to follow the path of democracy by holding elections in 2007,” Mr Tanaka said.

Japan, he said, had recently disbursed $400 million to Pakistan, which also included $200 million for survivors of the Oct 8 earthquake. This $200 million assistance for the earthquake survivors was mainly a grant and not part of the yen loan package, he clarified.

Responding to a question, he agreed that Pakistan needed nuclear energy for meeting its 8,800-mw of electricity requirements by 2030. But he said Pakistan had limited choices to seek nuclear technology for civilian purposes.

“Pakistan is on a tight and difficult corner,” he said, adding that China might not be in a position to offer 12 to 15 nuclear power plants to Pakistan as it was busy constructing its own power plants. China, he said, did not have much capacity to extend cooperation to other countries in the field of nuclear technology.

In reply to another query, Mr Tanaka said that Pakistan would never be able to achieve real development and progress unless it fully concentrated on education. “My advice to Pakistan is to spend adequate funds to promote social sectors,” he said, adding that Pakistan needed to spend at least four per cent of GDP on education like other development countries. He appreciated that funding on education has been increased from 1.9 per cent to 2.2 per cent of the GDP which, he said, was still needed to be further increased.