08 May, 2010
ISLAMABAD: Germany has started its financial cooperation and assistance to Pakistan in power generation through renewable energy to meet the present severe energy crisis here. "Pakistan and Germany have signed two agreements recently for producing power through solar and wind and work on these projects will start before the end of the year," Dr Michael Koch told reporters here at the National Press Club on Friday.The German ambassador said there would be more projects in Pakistan in renewable energy as there was great potential for development of renewable energy, as Pakistan has the capacity to produce 41,722MW hydro power, 346,000MW wind power potential and 2.9 millionMW from solar system. He said Germany is currently assisting more than 40 countries worldwide in energy projects focusing on use of renewable energies, like hydro power, wind and solar energy. Germany, he said, is a largest trading partner of Pakistan through European Union and added that during 2009 trade volume of Germany with Pakistan remained at $1.8 billion although it was slightly less than $2.2 billion recorded in 2008.
The ambassador said Germany is keenly awaiting next Pakistan-European Union summit being held in Brussels in the first week of June to further promote relations with Pakistan. He said there was great willingness among members of the EU to extend more help and cooperation to Pakistan to resolve its problems. He said Germany had been a major provider of financial assistance to Pakistan in the field of education, health and energy. He said in the last meeting of Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) held in Tokyo, Germany pledged 150 million euro and assured to ensure funding to this sector.
The ambassador said Germany had also doubled annual aid to Pakistan. He said presently 1,200 Pakistani students are getting education in Germany while 100,000 individuals living and working in Germany either have Pakistani nationality or have dual nationality. Replying to another question on Pakistan-German cooperation in technical education as it was in the past, the ambassador agreed to look into the option to open technical institutions here in Pakistan with German cooperation to impart training to young people. He said the two countries have solid relations built on the basis of friendship.
Replying to a question about giving more access to Pakistan in trade in EU and especially Germany, the ambassador said that a number of qualifications need to be fulfilled for having more access to EU for Pakistani goods. Giving an example of a rule, he said the EU rules require that volume of trade should not be more than 1.0 per cent of the EU volume and in case of Pakistan it is 1.5 per cent of the total volume of EU trade that is an impediment to give more access to Pakistani trade to EU. The ambassador said Pakistan had the status of GSP with EU but it is demanding GSP plus and it is under discussion at various levels within in EU and in Pakistan to go in this direction.
The German ambassador said the trade relations between Pakistan and Germany would further flourish in future due to the Investment Protection Treaty signed by the Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani during his visit to Germany in December 2009. He said Germany fully supports Pakistan's point of view for GSP plus status in the European Union. Referring to some other problems, he said, a number of international conventions have not been signed by Pakistan while the most important thing is to fulfil standards set by EU and its member states. On the question of providing technical assistance to meet the standards of export from Pakistan, he said efforts could be made to implement this proposal.-APP
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