950808

ADB to provide

$60m for technical

education in

Pakistan

LAHORE: Negotiation for US$ 60 million for technical education project are in progress at Asian Development Bank headquarters in Manila.

A two member Pakistan delegation comprising Federal Education Secretary, Dr. Hassan Akhtar Khan and Joint Secretary Economic Affairs Division, Dr. Tahir Pervez is taking part in these negotiations which commenced on August 7 and will continue till Aug 11.

Loan repayment period is 35 years including ten years grace period. It will carry service charge of one percent per annum.

The federal government will provide the loan to the provinces on same terms and conditions as provided under the loan agreement.

The project, estimated to cost US$ 78.1 million including foreign exchange component of $45.1 million in seven years staring from this year, aims to further improve the quality of technical education in Pakistan in order to enhance employability of polytechnic institutes graduates by improving the present static supply driven system to a demand driven system capable of reacting efficiently to labour market demand and opportunities through enhancement of quality of teachers, upgrading of selected polytehnic and introduction of 14 new technologies.

The project implementation will be supervised by the Federal Education Ministry and coordination committees at the provincial levels will include representatives of the chamber of commerce and industry and the industries concerned.

Loan negotiation stage has reached after signing of Memorandum of Understanding and visits of the ADB fact finding mission in January-February and appraisal mission in April-May this year.

Initially, representatives of the four provinces were also to be included in the delegation but at the last minute, the size of the delegation was reduced to just two dropping four others from the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan by the quarters concerned.