Madame Chairperson,
Mr. President,
Honourable Governors,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen

Allow me on behalf of the Government of Pakistan to first pay tribute to the invaluable contribution made to IFAD's success by Mr. Fawzi H. Al Sultan the outgoing President of IFAD. Under his able leadership IFAD has been able to project itself as a lead institution in poverty Alleviation. He steered the organization through the arduous fourth replenishment exercise and successfully completed the fifth replenishment. His efforts at transforming IFAD into a knowledge organization were commendable and his quest for efficiency was admirable. The highly successful launch of IFAD's Rural Poverty Report 2001 is a tribute to his leadership. We hope that he has found his tenure with IFAD a fulfilling one and leaves IFAD with a sense of achievement. We pray for his continued success in future.

Madame Chairperson,

The Millennium declaration of the United Nations recognized that though globalization offered great opportunities, its benefits had been unevenly shared, its costs unevenly distributed and that there was need to make it fully inclusive and equitable. Poverty and inequity were recognised as the biggest challenges to humanity. Our task is to create an environment both at the national and the global level conducive to development and poverty alleviation. You Madame Chairperson are well aware of the steps taken to attain these goals at the global level. At the national level Pakistan is attempting to do so by:

Recognizing that agriculture employing 50% of the population, remains the pivotal sector for poverty alleviation and growth, measures have been taken to revitalize this sector including steps in favour of the poor and the marginalized. We are therefore –

On account of these and other policy measures the food situation in Pakistan remained satisfactory during the current year. The agriculture sector has shown remarkable growth rate of 5.6% in 1999-2000 compared to 2.0% in 1998-99. There have been encouraging increases in the production of cereals. Total food grain production has reached the level of 29.0 million tonnes which shows an increase of 13.7% as compared with last year's production. The production of wheat increased by 18.5% in 1999-2000 from 17.8 million tonnes to 21.1 million tonnes. Improvements of varying magnitude have transpired in the production of other important grain crops particularly rice (10.6%). However, availability of water is becoming a serious handicap to agriculture development and food security and is one area in which major initiatives are required together with innovative solutions at the Micro Level.

Madame Chairperson,

In our quest for poverty alleviation we have found in IFAD a ready and daring partner. Recently approved the Southern Federally Administered Tribal Areas Development Project. This is a prime example of targeting one of the poorest and most inaccessible areas of Pakistan adjoining Afghanistan. No wonder then that we continue to reaffirm our strong support for IFAD's mandate and mission of combating rural poverty through sustainable agriculture and rural development with particular focus on marginalized segments, the women and the landless. Our support is also reflected in our contribution of $ 2 million to the fifth replenishment of IFAD's resources.

Madame Chairperson,

Allow me to compliment IFAD and its membership for the timely completion of the Fifth Replenishment. We hope that the membership would exhibit the same urgency and efficiency in ensuring the timely effectiveness of the Fifth Replenishment of IFAD’s resources. We note the progress on the Plan of Action (2000-2002) and consider it a very useful instrument in guiding the future of IFAD. We underscore the importance of the Process Re-engineering Programme of IFAD in its transformation into a knowledge organization. We have noted the progress in this initiative and support its further development in close linkage with the objective of the Action Plan 2000-2003.

Madame Chairperson,

We have been pleading for increasing IFAD’s Programme of Work to allow it to make a meaningful contribution to combating hunger and poverty and for influencing the enabling environment in host countries. With regret we note an 18% decline in the lending programme for 2001. We have also been commending IFAD’s involvement in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative but have been cautioning that this should not be financed at the cost of IFAD’s regular lending programme. We reiterate that the resources for financing this initiative and its enhancement should be raised over and above those required for maintaining a credible Lending Level. We, therefore, appeal once again to the donors to find additional ways and means for financing IFAD’s contribution to the enhanced Level of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries’ Debt Initiative.

Finally, Madame Chairperson, we would like to compliment you and the bureau in so ably steering the work of IFAD’s Governing Council through an exceptionally testing period.

Thank you.