Pakistan desires improvement in development partnership with Japan: PM Imran

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said Friday Pakistan sought to expand its relations with Japan in diverse fields, with a particular focus on infrastructural development.

During a meeting with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) President Shinichi Kitaoka, PM Imran hailed the strong partnership between Islamabad and Tokyo in various sectors and was briefed about different projects being executed with the agency's cooperation.

Kitaoka is in Pakistan on a four-day visit.

According to its website, the Japanese governmental agency had been focusing on assisting Pakistan in three areas, including ensuring human security and human development, improving the economic base, and a stable, balanced development in border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The agency said it was flexibly applying its various schemes to strengthen polio eradication and immunisation measures and providing water and sewer infrastructure, as well as institutional arrangements, to respond to rapid urbanisation.

Polio lab upgraded with Japan's help

The agency was also assisting in building power transmission and road networks primarily through loans and strengthening domestic industries through technical cooperation.

Other assistance the JICA provided included technical assistance for disaster preparedness at the national level, utilising Japan's expertise that comes from being affected often by natural disasters.

Pakistan’s Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio was upgraded with Japan's assistance through a grant worth $3.3 million, Radio Pakistan reported on Friday. 

It would boost Pakistan’s capacity to swiftly track and respond to the polio virus. The laboratory currently tests more than 30,000 stool samples and 950 environmental samples for polio in a year from Afghanistan and Pakistan.