The Dutch ambassador has called for the need to improve governance in the Pakistan if it wants to achieve progress at par with countries like the Netherlands.
Netherlands Ambassador Hugo Gajus Scheltema made the remarks at an event organised by the Karachi Council on Foreign Relations at the Institute of Business Management on Saturday.
Scheltema, who has been posted in Pakistan for a period of two years stressed the importance of building a positive reputation.
He stressed that “no good economic development can take place without good governance.” Highlighting how unfortunate it was that Pakistan despite having vast energy resources and strong agriculture lagged behind most countries of the world, the ambassador blamed the shortcomings on governance in the country and called for the need to make adjustments in it.
Even though Pak-Dutch relations go back over half a century, the trade volume between the two countries stood at less than a billion dollars, he said. Although hundreds of millions of dollars were spent by the Dutch government in ‘traditional development projects’ over the years, since the last two years these projects have been stopped.
“We felt the need to move away from aid to trade,” he said. However, when asked how could Netherlands, which was one of the Nato countries that supported military action in Afghanistan, whose spill out was felt in Pakistan the most, could distance itself from development projects in Pakistan, the ambassador first stressed that his country shut its military mission in Afghanistan two years ago.
He said the Dutch people’s expertise in a variety of areas such as water management, agriculture and energy sector could also be utilised.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 20th, 2011.
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