ADB Mission meets Salman

ISLAMABAD—An Asian Development Bank (ADB) Mission comprising Lloyd Powell and Mr. Keith Leonard called on Dr. Salman Shah, Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Economic Affairs here on Friday. The meeting reviewed the progress of various ADB assisted programmes to improve governance and to provide easy access to justice for the people. These ADB assisted programmes amount to US $ 1.3 billion.
Expressing satisfaction over the support of federal and provincial governments, the ADB Mission pointed out multiplicity of implementing agencies. Dr. Salman Shah stated that we have traditionally focused on mega projects but now we are moving towards community development programmes and Khushal Pakistan Programme is one of them.
He further said that improvement in governance is a critical area and the measurement of result is more difficult but what is needed is the visibility of services at grass-root level. “We are focusing to provide clean drinking water and electricity to all by 2007 besides improvement in the education, health and sanitation areas”.
He emphasized the need to involve local governments and community based organizations to prepare and implement projects of community development. Dr. Salman Shah further stated that the government is determined to improve governance and access to justice. He asked the ADB Mission to identify bottlenecks and suggest remedial measures so that action can be taken at the highest levels.—APP