LAHORE, Feb 18: Germany plans to shortly begin the construction of the Torkham-Jalalabad Road for which material is expected to be procured from Pakistan.

This was stated by German envoy to Pakistan Do Christophe Brummer while speaking to businessmen at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Monday. He said the technology and equipment for the project would, however, be imported from Germany.

The envoy described the situation in Afghanistan as “shaky” because of the recent developments, including the murder of a minister and attacks on international forces stationed in that country. However, he said, the “world was thinking about them (Afghans) and working for that country’s rebuilding”. He was hopeful that the conditions would improve there in the near future.

He said the rebuilding of Afghanistan would leave a positive impact on Pakistan’s economy. He said it was an accepted fact that reconstruction of a country benefits the economies of its neighbours. Hence, he added, Pakistan stood to benefit from the massive reconstruction activities that were expected to start soon.

Dr Brummer said a delegation of German businessmen was visiting Afghanistan to see how could Germany help the Afghans in their effort to rebuild their country.

The envoy said his country was extending close cooperation to Pakistan in the field of hydel power generation and several places had been identified in northern areas and feasibilities prepared for setting up hydel power projects there. However, he said, funds for starting the projects were yet to be arranged.

He also complained that Pakistan awarded contract for such a project to a Dubai-based company although German had spent some DM10-12 million on its feasibility. He said Pakistan’s decision was quite shocking for them.

He said his country was opposed to giving grants to the developing countries because these did not produce the desired results. He said the developing countries should ask for credit lines and rescheduling instead of grants.

He was of the view that Pakistan’s economy was doing better than normal at present. He said finance minister Shaukat Aziz could announce rising of the country’s foreign exchange reserves to $6 billion any time. He also hoped that the German airline — Lufthansa — would resume its services to and from Pakistan in the near future. He said it would not be possible for the airline to start operations immediately because Lufthansa, like other airlines of the world, had been hit hard due to the Sept 11 events.