Japan/Pakistan aid conference

Donors pledge more than five billion dollars to Pakistan

Article published on the 2009-04-17 Latest update 2009-04-18 13:53 TU

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari (R) delivers a speech next to Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso at the Pakistan Donors Conference in Tokyo
(Photo: Reuters)

International donors pledged more than five billion dollars (3.8 billion euros) to Pakistan at a one-day conference in Tokyo Friday. The fund drive comes after President Barack Obama's pledge to finance the fight against poverty in the country, as part of his attempt to defeat the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

US envoy Richard Holbrooke described the conference as "an extreme success" and said that the US's pledge was "a down-payment on President Obama's commitment" to a bill to pay Pakistan 1.5 billion dollars (1.14 billion euros) a year over the next five years.

The largest donations were:

• US - one billion dollars over two years;
• Japan - one billion dollars over two years;
• Saudi Arabia - 700 million dollars;
• European Union - 640 million dollars (490 million euros) over four years.
  

The funds will provide "additional support to social safety nets, human development and pro-poor development expenditures," according to a statement by Japan and the World Bank, who co-hosted the conference.

"Will it be enough? No," Holbrooke said. "Pakistan needs more. Pakistan needs the world's help."

At the start of the meeting Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said that "we are ready to fight" Islamic extremism, telling delegates that in his country now "there is a bomb blast every third day."

But Pakistan's leaders must learn how to manage their own country without turning to the international community to fill up its coffers every time there is a disaster, analyst Abdul Hamid Nayyar told RFI.

Until Pakistan can better manage its own affairs and be more transparent in its accounting of aid money, he says, no one should give Pakistan money.

The World Bank said the pledges would help Pakistan "meet its immediate needs and protect expenditures on safety net and human development initiatives critical for poor people. The amount exceeded initial expectations."

An estimated 40 per cent of Pakistanis live on less than a dollar a day.

The meeting follows the Hague conference on Afghanistan, which promised increased civilian help to Kabul and was followed by a Nato summit to discuss sending more troops and training Afghan security forces.

Obama's administration has stressed that it considers that a joint strategy for Pakistan and Afghanistan is the only way to defeat Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgency, which affects both countries.