Press release

Japan Provides 6.29 billion Yen to Protect the Children of Pakistan Against Polio

Islamabad: 19th May 2016

PRESS RELEASE N0: JPNEMPAK 16-21

The Government of Japan has announced today to extend a soft loan of 6.29 billion Yen (approximately USD 59 million) to the Government of Pakistan for polio eradication in Pakistan. The notes were signed and exchanged between Mr. Takashi Kurai, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan and Mrs. Anjum Assad Amin, Additional Secretary for Economic Affairs Division, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. H.E. Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Minister of Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs and Statistics and Privatization witnessed the signing ceremony.
This loan will be utilized to procure 273 million doses of Oral Polio Vaccines for polio eradication campaign.
The Government of Japan has focused on polio eradication, which is indeed a global challenge for public health. Since 1996, for over 20 years, Japan has supported polio eradication campaign in Pakistan by way of procurement of polio vaccine, strengthening the logistics for delivery through cold chain system, improvement in the treatment of vaccinators, dispatching Japanese medical experts, and so on. Thereby Japan’s assistance including this Yen loan reaches approximately 22.6 billion Japanese Yen (approximately USD 212.5 million) in total.
At the signing ceremony, H. E. Mr. Takashi Kurai stated “our assistance this year of about PKR 6.2 billion is the biggest among all the assistance we have ever provided so far in this area and we sincerely hope that this yen loan will be a finishing blow to polio infection and lead to the complete polio eradication where we can see all the children free from it.” (End)