September 19, 2006	Tuesday	Sha'aban 25, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: The Medium Term Development Framework 2005 has set the stage for a more planned structural investment in all sectors of economy, involving the public, private sectors, NGOs and the civil society to articulate Vision 2030 for the next generation.

This was stated by Chairman Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) M E Tasneem, while talking to a three-member delegation of International Water Management Institute (IWMI), led by its Director-General Dr Frank Rijsberman at PARC headquarters here on Monday.

He said that Vision 2030 gave extreme importance to the agriculture sector that continued to be the mainstay of Pakistan’s economy, serving as a conduit for achieving the global development goals. He also gave an overview of the water situation in the country.

Dr Tasneem informed the delegation that the government had provided substantial funds to PARC for agricultural research to the tune of Rs2.8 billion for the next five years and there was no dearth of local funding to carry out sustainable research in different agricultural disciplines.

However, he asked the IWMI to extend intellectual resources inputs for water conservation issues confronting the country.

The chairman informed the delegation that PARC had recently developed a mechanism with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) known as IPFRI-Pakistan Advisory Forum where the former would act as its secretariat for a coordinated agricultural research.

Dr Frank Rijsberman highlighted the activities of IWMI and said that the emerging issues in water sector were affecting food security and poor people in the developing countries, therefore, keeping alive to these issues, IWMI kept on updating its research agenda almost every five years.

He said the institute was focusing on four themes relating to water conservation and management that included basin water management, land, water and livelihoods, agriculture, water and cities, and water management and environment.

Appreciating the role of PARC as one of the main partners in Pakistan, Dr Frank recalled that IWMI was established in Pakistan after the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MoA) in September 1986 and in 1995 the Government of Pakistan had provided a permanent building to the institute in Lahore where it had been functioning since then.

He said Pakistan used to be one of the biggest offices of IWMI during the 1990s and made substantial contributions to the identification, understanding and finding a solution to water and land resource management problems it has been working on.

He said that in recent time the initiatives taken by MINFAL and PARC for involving IWMI in its water sector programme brought Dr Peter McCornick, Director for Asia, to Pakistan in March 2006 for identifying key areas and developing a research programme where IWMI could contribute.