Pakistan and Germany on Friday signed three grant-in-aid agreements with a cumulative value of €18.5 million.
The Pakistani side was represented by the Ministry of Economic Affairs while German Development Bank-KfW represented the government of Germany. Under these agreements, Germany will provide support for women health facilities, polio eradication, along with services towards mitigation of energy issues.
The agreements were signed by Economic Affairs Secretary Noor Ahmed and German Development Bank-KfW Pakistan Director Sebastian Jacobi.
Under the ‘women employment in private health’ component, KfW will provide a grant of €12 million exclusively for the establishment of women health clinics in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab to promote self-employment of women in the health sector, besides training of qualified women to run clinics.
Meanwhile, KfW will provide an additional grant of €5 million to augment the existing support for polio eradication. This will help Pakistan to finance polio vaccines and meet the costs for implementation of Pakistan’s National Polio Emergency Action Plan.
Under the climate change/energy component, a grant of €1.5 million will be given to Pakistan to implement accompanying services for the Harpo Hydropower Project in the Gilgit-Baltistan region.
These accompanying measures will be carried out at the project site in support of the main Harpo Hydropower Project to ensure project sustainability. The accompanying services shall comprise assistance to strengthen the power utility i.e. the Gilgit-Baltistan Power Department as well as accompanying investments in the social infrastructure including relevant consulting measures.
Historically, Pakistan and Germany have enjoyed warm friendly relations since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1951. Earlier this year, Germany through KfW signed agreements with the government of Pakistan to provide €27 million for Gharo substation in Sindh and €6 million for the Regional Infrastructure Project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
