TOKYO, Feb 5: The financial adviser to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called on Japan on Thursday to continue giving aid to Pakistan despite the global financial crisis, a press report said.

The adviser, Shaukat Tarin, explained his country’s economic reform efforts during a meeting here with Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, Kyodo News said.

Last November, Pakistan reached an accord with the International Monetary Fund that saw it receive a $7.6 billion emergency financing package to help it deal with serious balance of payments difficulties.

Mr Tarin told Nakagawa that his country’s fiscal position had seriously worsened due to a delay in passing higher energy and food prices on to consumers, Kyodo said.

But he added Islamabad had implemented various reforms to tighten fiscal and monetary policies with support from the IMF, the report added.

He said conditions had since improved with lower inflation rates and a normalised stock market, but expressed concerns about expected declines in the country’s exports and remittances from Pakistani workers abroad.

Mr Nakagawa told Mr Tarin that Japan planned to continue to help developing countries hit hard by the economic crisis through the IMF and World Bank, the report said.

Bilaterally, Japan extended yen-denominated loans worth about $500 million to Pakistan in the year to March 2009.

Mr Tarin unveiled a plan to set up a special economic zone in Karachi, which would possibly serve as a gateway to Central Asian and Middle Eastern markets for Japanese firms, the report said.

He also proposed the two countries jointly develop gas, coal and copper in Pakistan, Kyodo added.

Mr Tarin is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Taro Aso on Friday.—AFP