Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates met Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Davos Thursday.

Gates is looking forward to visiting Pakistan "in the coming months", a statement from the PM office said.

The two leaders met on the sidelines on World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where they discussed Pakistan's efforts to eradicate the polio virus from the country.

Gates applauded Pakistan's efforts to eliminate the virus from the country and said that "Year 2017 would be the year of polio eradication from Pakistan," the statement read.

Gates also said he is looking forward to visiting in the coming months Pakistan.

Read more: Polio: Pakistan’s shame

PM Sharif briefed the philanthropist on measures taken by the federal government to catalyse the fight against polio.

He said provincial governments as well as the governments in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan are making a collaborative effort through a national task force.

The Microsoft co-founder, who has donated billions to fight global diseases, made an official announcement in 2016 about a partnership fund between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Islamic Development Bank, via which $50 million were donated to The Lives and Livelihood Fund.

The two organisations have been working to eradicate diseases, including polio, since 2012.

"There’s very few cases left, just two countries at this point, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and with any luck, either this year or next year we will have the last cases of those," Gates had said.