Government of Pakistan (GoP) has sought assistance from Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations to develop the livestock, horticulture and fisheries sectors. A three-member delegation of FAO led by Dr Christopher Oates, Managing Director, Agro Food Resources Co, Thailand held a meeting with Shahab Khawaja, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) here on Friday. The delegation included David C. Hall, Livestock Policy Officer and Divine Noganje, Technical Officer of FAO. Sikandar Shah, Project Director, Agricultural and Livestock Products Marketing and Grading Department, Government of Pakistan also attended the meeting.
Leader of the delegation Dr Christopher Oates said that his team was visiting Pakistan on desire of the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan. 'We have been assigned the task of developing livestock, horticulture and fisheries sectors in Pakistan at par with the world standards', he said.
Referring to this task his associate Divine Noganje said, "We are planning to bring world's best technologies and practices to upgrade these sectors to exploit the full potential in these sectors".
The FAO delegation also exchanged their views with the CEO on "One Village-One Product" idea. They observed that the idea could be helpful in enhancing Pakistan's export in case it is designed carefully taking the strength of local industry into consideration.
Later, Shahab Khawaja, apprised the FAO team about the work done by Smeda so far for development of fisheries, dairy and horticulture sectors. He said that the sectors were on the top priority of the present government, and Smeda was engaged in making development strategies for these sectors under direct supervision of Jehangir Khan Tareen, Federal Minister Industries, Production and Special Initiatives.
Anjum Ahmad, Arshad Hashmi and Asad Zahoor from Smeda also shared their knowledge and experience with the visiting team.
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