|
EU-Pakistan economic cooperation
National
economic cooperation:
TRADE-RELATED
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROJECT (TRTA)
The project on WTO
capacity-building aims to enhance the capacity of key
stakeholders – government officials, business and civil
society actors – in pertinent areas of WTO negotiations, as
well as in the field of standards and quality control (e.g. EU
and WTO requirements on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS)
measures).
Capacity-building
activities was launched in 2004 for a total amount of
euros 5 million. They will include among others: awareness
raising and information exchange aimed at key stakeholders
through seminars, networks and other relevant
communication/training means (website development, publication
and dissemination of easily accessible materials); training
such as supporting participation in relevant trade policy
courses, internships, and strengthening research centers and
think-tanks.
This will be
combined with a sectoral approach focusing on key sectors of
importance to Pakistan’s economy and to bilateral trade
relations with the EU. The textiles sector is an obvious
candidate, in addition to leather, the fisheries sector and
specific agricultural commodities.
Capacity-building
efforts will also concentrate on topical and often complex
areas of WTO negotiations, such as:
understanding the
potential effects of the WTO TRIPs agreement and developing
adequate policy responses at the national level; examining the
effects of the post-2004 quota regime on textiles and clothing
and of China’s entry into WTO for the future development of
Pakistan’s exports; identifying new potential products and
markets for fisheries exports and understanding the various
SPS measures applied in such sectors (EU and non-EU ones).
While Pakistan has
crossed for the first time the $US10 billion mark for its
exports, much remains to be done to ensure that exports - and
trade more generally - effectively contribute to poverty
eradication, notably by ensuring that key decision-makers and
business actors are able to seize the opportunities provided
by bilateral and multilateral trade agreements.
Download
financing agreement
press release
http://www.ipo.gov.pk/contact.php
SMALL PROJECT FACILITY
The project on TRTA will be complemented by a separate
small project facility, focusing on strengthening dialogue and
networking between organizations and individuals working on
trade and economic-related issues in both Pakistan and the EU.
This set up will directly contribute to strengthening
interactions and knowledge-sharing between EU and Pakistan
organizations working in a range of areas, such as regional
and international trade and investment, and specific
social/cultural and environmental matters.
FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR REFORM PROGRAMME (FSSRP)
The Financing Agreement for FSSRP was signed in May 2002
in Islamabad and the programme was completed in May
2007. The objectives of this budget support programme
was to contribute to, and support the Government of
Pakistan’s reforms in financial services by creating
additional resources for the reinforcement of social
sector development under the Government’s Poverty
Reduction Strategy Programme (PRSP), notably through
support to Micro Finance Institutions and Small & Medium
Enterprises (SME).
The overall budget for this programme was €50 million
comprising two parts:
1.
€45 million for budget support activities conducted in
the context of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and
managed through disbursement of tranches on the basis of
benchmarks, results and achievements.
2.
€5 million for experts' assistance focused on
micro-finance, SME development and fiscal devolution at
federal, provincial and district levels. This component
was operational during (2004-2007) and provided support
and capacity building in the areas of public finance,
micro-finance and SME development. An important number
of technical studies were made available thanks to this
component and published in a special website for the
programme which was closed in 2008.
Major Achievements:
The programme was unique in its kind and was one of the
first major budget support operations of the European
Union in Asia. In difficult times after 9/11 2001, it
provided flexible resources to the Government of
Pakistan in support of major reforms in the financial
sector, including the devolution of power to the
districts, micro-finance and SME development.
This programme together with the assistance of other
development partners (World Bank, International Monetary
Fund, Asian Development Bank, UK Department for
International Development, Swiss Agency for Development
and Cooperation) helped the Government of Pakistan in
achieving the following results:
Ø
Expansion in number of Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs)
and Micro Finance Banks (MFBs)
Ø
Improved access to local savings/credit
Ø
Improved Regulatory Framework
Ø
Increased effectiveness of financial service provision
and outreach.
Regional
economic cooperation projects:
ASIA PRO ECO
The Asia Pro Eco Programme aims to improve environmental
performance and technology partnership in economic sectors,
and promote sustainable responsible investment. It is a
five-year European Union initiative, launched in 2002, based
on the experience and the inputs provided by the Asia Eco Best
Programme.
With an
EC contribution of € 31,5 million (total budget: € 82,3
million), the main objective of Asia Pro Eco is to adopt
policies, technologies and practices that promote cleaner,
more resource efficient, sustainable solutions to
environmental problems in Asia. The implementation
concentrates on specific projects under the Call for Proposals
mechanism accessible to public or non profit organisations in
Asia and EU. The Programme provides support through grants.
Activities such as organisation of working conferences,
diagnostic studies, policy advice, feasibility studies,
technology partnership and demonstration activities in the
field of environment can be considered for funding under the
Programme.
There are currently two deadlines for calls for proposals: 27
June 2003 for projects focusing on policy reinforcement and 3
October 2003 for projects on operational and practical
dialogue.
For further information, please visit the website:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/projects/asia-pro-eco/index_en.htm
EU-PAKISTAN
CIVIL AVIATION PROJECT
The “EU-Asian Civil Aviation Co-operation” project, which
amounts to 30 million € (Rs 1.6 billion), is part of a
regional programme which aims to increase the Asian awareness
of the EU industry practices in Airworthiness, safety
regulations and standards, Air Traffic Management and Air
Traffic Control, as well as Product Maintenance and Customer
Support practices. The overall objective of the project is to
contribute to improved aviation safety and enable full growth
potential to be met by the Asian aviation and aerospace
industries.
The project will concentrate on a programme of co-operation on
aviation safety by involving from the European side, the
industry and regulatory authorities and from the Asian side,
the industry, the operators and the regulatory authorities of
the various participating countries.
The cooperation will specifically focus in the following three
areas:
1) Airworthiness, with particular emphasis on co-operation
towards an Aviation Safety Oversight Programme for South Asia
and South East Asia; 2) Air Traffic Management
3)Product Maintenance / Customer Support.
The other countries which have endorsed the financing
agreement include Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, the
Philippines and Thailand.
Asia-Invest II
The Asia invest programme was set up primarily to assist small
and medium-sized European companies in investment decisions
and matchmaking with potential Asian partners. This is
particularly relevant for Pakistan where small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face a number of challenges in
accessing markets abroad, developing direct relationships with
foreign buyers and complying with EU standards and
requirements for exports.
The second phase of the Asia-Invest Programme - Asia-Invest II
from 2003-2007 - was launched in March 2003, with a first
deadline for new proposals in June 2003. Project proposals
will cover three main areas of activities:
business-to-business matchmaking, Asian private sector
development, and capacity-building for Asian intermediaries
and networking with EU counterparts.
In Pakistan, a study on business cooperation and investment
will be conducted in the second half of 2003. The purpose is
to draft a ‘Business Cooperation and Investment Guide’ to
facilitate business cooperation between Pakistani and European
SMEs, identify new business opportunities, and reinforce the
Pakistani private sector. This study is timely as new business
opportunities may arise in Pakistan from the current
privatization process, as well as new key export sectors
identified by the Export Promotion Bureau (e.g. engineering
goods, information technology, fisheries and chemicals), and
reforms in the textiles and clothing sector linked to the
phasing-out in 2005 of the quota regime.
You may go to the following website for more information:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/projects/asia-invest
Asia IT&C
The Asia Information Technology and Telecommunications
programme (Asia – IT&C) aims to strengthen the technical links
between Europe and Asia and increase the integration of more
Asian countries into the global information society.
The total budget for Asia IT&C is 35 million Euro, of which
around 23 million Euro has been used to fund 81 projects.
There will be two further deadlines for new proposals in May
and September 2003.
Pakistan is now involved in five Asia IT&C projects, based in
Lahore (3 projects), Karachi (1 project) and Peshawar (1
project). These projects are:
E-Learning Knowledge Transfer project, implemented between the
Pakistan Virtual IT University (PVITU) in Lahore and the
University of Central Lancashire (UK). The project aims to
bring together European institutions and organizations with
knowledge and experience of e-learning in higher education,
vocational education and lifelong learning to share
information with, and learn from, PVITU. The activities will
concentrate on identifying best practices in the field of
e-learning, running pilot courses in vocational and academic
areas and creating new networks.
IT&C skills for a more efficient micro-finance sector in South
Asia, implemented by Planet Finance in three Asian countries:
Pakistan, Nepal and India. The overall objective of the
project is to alleviate poverty and encourage private
enterprise in the South Asian countries identified through the
use of IT&C tools in the existing micro-finance institutions (MFIs).
MFIs will thus be able to access on-line services, including
practical and cost-effective information and management tools.
Activities include provision of IT&C tools, in-the-field and
on-line training, creation of regional and national gateway,
seminars, conferences and an IT&C/micro-finance EU tour.
Punjabi language and transliteration tool (PLATT), implemented
between Lok Sujag in Lahore and Preston College (UK). This
project aims to develop a transliteration tool for the Panjabi
language that enables e-comprehension between three different
scripts, namely Gurmukhi (East Punjab, India), Shahmukhi (West
Punjab, Pakistan) and Roman (Europe). Activities will
concentrate on exploring IT solutions for common writing
procedures of different scripts, thus enabling EU and South
Asian organizations to have a common basis for communication
and maintain lasting relationships, which would otherwise not
be possible.
On-line navigational environmental city information (Asia
city), implemented by the National Technical University in
Athens and 5 Asian countries, including Pakistan. The
objective of this project is to develop contacts and
connections between five Asian countries and European IT&C
initiatives in the field of city-info mobility by establishing
task forces, workshops and other relevant events. The main
output of the project is a joint strategy in the field of IT
technology for ‘on-line navigational city information’.
IT facilitated adaptation of EFQM based total Quality
Management Model, implemented between Spain and three Asian
countries (Pakistan, Malaysia and India). The AsiaQual project
aims to set up a support infrastructure in Asia and in Europe
for helping SMEs to implement a Total Quality Management (TQM)
approach. The basic idea is to set up a network of IT centers
in both Europe and the three Asian countries, along the lines
of European Foundation QM model.
You may go to the following website for more information:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/projects/asia-itc/html/main.htm
Asia IT & C projects in
Pakistan
Asia Urbs
Asia Urbs offers the possibility of cooperation between
municipal authorities. Asia Urbs has two deadlines for new
proposals in May and September 2003.
There are currently two on-going projects in Pakistan. The
first one is the study being conducted by the Defence Housing
Society in a coastal suburb of Karachi. This study envisages
to examine current waste management practices in the area, and
draw on technical and economic data to develop a project on
waste management to counter environmental and health risks,
notably to the urban poor and squatters. The project would be
designed to be easily transferable to other areas of Karachi,
and elsewhere in Pakistan. The European partners in this
initiative are Gummersbach from Germany La Roche-sur-Yon from
France.
The other one is also a study conducted by the Peshawar
Municipal Corporation to develop an integrated response to the
pressing needs for sanitation and solid waste management in
Peshawar. Technical expertise was be provided through
exchanges between the project partners. The impact of the
project would be enhanced through communications activities in
schools, local media, and community-based organizations in the
second phase of the project. Direct links between local groups
in Peshawar and in Luton would develop capacity for locally
based decision-making bodies. The European partners in this
project were Lutonbourg U.K and Rotterdam Municipality,
Netherlands.
There is increasing scope for assisting local municipal
authorities in connection with the devolution process through
strengthening the political, cultural and economic potential
for decentralized cooperation, with Europe focusing on the
sharing of know-how and techniques.
Asia Link
The Asia link programme encourages and develops links between
European and Asian institutions of higher education, thus
facilitating the exchange and pooling of experiences among the
academic community. A total of Euro 40 million has been
allocated to fund the programme over a five year period (until
the end of 2005). Forty-two projects were selected under the
first call for proposals and a second call for proposal is
open, with deadlines in May and September 2003.
Projects have a focus in the area of human resource
development, curriculum development and institutional and
systems development. About 117 European and Asian higher
education institutions are participating in this multilateral
networking initiative and cover different subject areas of EU-Asia
economic cooperation such as agriculture, business/economics,
engineering, environment/sustainable development, etc.
You may go to the following website for more information
http://europa.eu.int/europeaid/projects/asia-link
Click here for summary of projects
|
