ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Japan on Friday signed an agreement under which Japan would provide a soft loan of US $ 233 million for development projects in Pakistan.
The signing ceremony was held at the Economic Affairs Division.
The agreement was signed by Sibtain Fazal Halim, Secretary Economic Affairs Division and Chihiro Atsumi, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan.
Under the arrangement, Japan will provide a soft loan of US $ 233 million of which $60 million and $173 million would be for budgetary support and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rural Road Project respectively.
This support is out of a total of $500 million pledged by Japan during the Pakistan Development Forum 2010.
Japan is providing these loans on highly concessional interest rate of 0.01 per cent per anum and to be remmitted over a period of 40 years including a grace period of 10 years.On the occasion, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and EAD also signed the loan agreement for the budgetary support of $60 million.
The loan agreement for KP Rural Road Project will be signed after the approval of the project by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) and the Cabinet.
The objective of the budgetary support is to help smooth the process of flood disaster restoration by providing import financing for goods and services essential to the recovery and reconstruction, thereby contributing to normalising and stabilising the living of flood victims and reviving the economy of the country in a timely manner.
Speaking on the occasion, the Secretary EAD thanked the government of Japan for their continued assistance to Pakistan for the socio-economic development of the country. He said that this assistance would also help further enhance the bi-lateral relations between the two friendly countries especially in the economic field.
In his remarks, the Japanese ambassador to Pakistan assured the support of his country to Pakistan for the socio economic development of the country and the people of Pakistan.
He further expressed hope that this assistance would help the government of Pakistan work effectively on rehabilitation and reconstruction of the flood-affected areas and would further strengthen the existing friendly relations between the two countries.
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