ISLAMABAD, May 14: Pakistan has decided to bring down the poverty level from its present level of 31.8 per cent to 25 per cent in the next five years, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Wednesday.

He was speaking at a joint press conference along with World Bank’s vice president Ms Meiko Nishimizu and director general of the Asian Development Bank Mr Yoshihiro Iwasaki.

Speaking on the occasion, the finance minister said that the during the three-day-long meeting of the Pakistan Development Forum, donors had extensively discussed Pakistan’s economy.

Mr Aziz said that the draft of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which had been circulated during the PDF meeting, would be finalised with the inputs of the donor agencies.

The PRSP, he said, covered every sector of the economy, specially poverty alleviation and creation of better living conditions for the people. The paper, he said, also took into account problems being faced by women.

He said although the PDF meeting was not a pledging session, donors had decided to support Pakistan because of the economic polices being pursed by the present government.

Aziz, however, said that the country still faced with a lot of challenges, including efforts for carrying forward the reform process, poverty and transparency.

He said that the Minister for Water and Power Aftab Sherpao had told participants of the meeting on Wednesday that 22 per cent of the development programme was aimed at meeting the requirements of the water sector.

He said that the meeting had also discussed reforms being carried out in Pakistan’s financial, tax and banking sectors.

Earlier, director general of the Asian Development Bank Mr Yoshihiro Iwasaki said that more financial assistance was being extended to Pakistan than India or China because of Islamabad’s better economic policies.

Mr Iwasaki said that the ADB had provided $3.2 billion during the last year. For 2002, he said, the ADB’s assistance amounting to $1.1 billion was a record by comparison with the Bank’s assistance to India and China.

Donors, he said, had taken a positive view of the government’s reform agenda, adding that more funds would be provided in the future.

The ADB official said that additional devolution reforms were needed to effectively deal with the issue of poverty. “Macroeconomic fundamentals are good but there is a need to promote private investment in Pakistan,” he said.

He said that the government was now in a position to take part in the reconstruction of Afghanistan besides benefit more out of connecting Balochistan with the Central Asian republics via Afghanistan.

Mr Iwasaki said that the development of Gwadar deep sea port could serve as a gateway for economic prosperity to Pakistan and other countries of the region.

Vice president of the World Bank Ms. Nishimizu said that Pakistan needed to be supported to undertake further reforms in the education and financial sectors besides making the devolution efforts more meaningful in terms of providing support to the people at the gross root level.

While commending the present government’s efforts to provide better services for the people, she said that more needed to be done for which donors would also be forthcoming.

Asked if she was satisfied with the implementation of the policies, she said that she wanted the effects of reforms to reach the common man. “People should have trust in the institutions of the state,” she said.

Asked about the increasing population, the finance minister said that the population growth rate had been reduced from three per cent to 2.1 per cent and that it still needed to be brought down further.

He also said that the government had spent 20 per cent resources for education in the current budget which would be increased further in the next budget.

At this stage, the ADB official said the government needed to spend more on primary and secondary level education.