Noticias de Rupia | Nouvelles de Roupie | Rupiennachrichten | ??????? ????? | ???? | Roepienieuws | Rupi Nyheter | ??????? | Notizie di Rupia | PAKISTAN LEDGER | ???????? ????? | RUPEE NEWS | March 7th, 2009 | Moin Ansari | ???? ??????? | ????? ????? |

ROZ Pakistani map

The designation of  parts of Pakistan as ROZ (Reconstruction Opportunity Zones) is a first initial step that is a move in the right direction. We have always advocated a Marshall Plan for Pakistan. This is the only way to suppress the insurgency and reverse Anti-Americanism in the region. The US has wasted $143 Billion in Afghanistan and not achieved any gains. We have over the years advocated a Pakistan FTA with the USA that would allow about $15 Billion of exports to America. This hard earned money would belong to the Textile exporters who would have to build extra capacity and hire more workers. The new employees would become more integrated into the society, and would send their children to the best schools in their vicinity would would graduate and perhaps go to the USA and Europe. These would bring back education and moderation to the people similar to what has happened in Malaysia and Korea.

Secretive U.S. efforts to pump millions of aid dollars into northwest Pakistan and dry up support for the Taliban and al-Qaida have barely begun because of attacks on development workers, fears of corruption and dragging bureaucracy. ISLAMABAD (Map, News) – A major U.S. effort to erode support for the Taliban and al-Qaida by pumping millions of aid dollars into the violence-wracked Afghan border region is being threatened by attacks on aid workers, corruption and layers of bureaucracy.

The Obama administration has pledged to use development aid as a foreign policy tool, and is expected to unveil a new hike in assistance before April. But there are concerns about how the money is being spent in remote valleys too dangerous for foreign aid workers to venture and where residents risk a beheading if they cross the militants.

A Taliban commander in the North Waziristan border region warned residents last month to shun the “sweet poison” of development aid. “Wait for the consequences, if anybody accepts anything,” Gul Bahadur warned in a leaflet.

Three years after the Bush administration pledged $750 million for the impoverished tribal belt, people associated with the effort told The Associated Press that a clutch of education and road-building projects are finally getting under way.

This story continues below
Advertisement
Washington has cloaked its efforts in secrecy, foregoing an opportunity to show off a kinder American face in order to protect its staff and contractors.

The danger of operating openly was made brutally evident in November, when suspected militants killed American aid worker Stephen Vance as he drove to work in Peshawar. The top U.S. diplomat there survived a similar attack in August.

The attacks have complicated the task of winning the hearts and minds of the northwest’s fiercely independent tribes.

“Precious little” new American money has reached the tribal belt, said Owais Ahmed Ghani, governor of the turbulent North West Frontier Province. “Things have to translate on the ground.”

Ghani regularly hosts visiting U.S. officials and lays out ambitious plans that include industrial parks to create jobs and solar-powered TV sets to pull the region toward modernity.

But, he complained, Washington has been reluctant to embrace marquee projects that could leave a lasting impact on local attitudes toward the West. He said he offered to name a major dam to irrigate large swaths of barren tribal land after John Kerry if the senator could arrange the funding.

Kerry is sponsoring a financial aid bill for Pakistan, an earlier version of which foresaw providing another $7.5 billion in civilian assistance over five years across the whole of the country. US aid effort under fire in Pakistan border area Comments Feb 26, 2009 5:05 PM (8 days ago) By STEPHEN GRAHAM, AP

Pakistan's new provinces. Ending majoritarianism. Balancing the federation. Empowering minorities. Resolving greviences

The area under ROZ should be dramatically increased to include all of Pakistan. The US should build 1000 hospitals and 5000 schools and 100 new American Universities which would cost less than the bombs that are thrown at the FATA residents. The hospitals would be a living symbol of good American intentions and the Universities and Schools will create moderate and literate Pakistanis. The American University in Beirut is an example how one campus can make the difference in the entire region.

While the UEA can purchase campuses from the West, Pakistani students could be offered scholarships to attend the modern American campuses in Dubai and the Gulf States. The educated Pakistanis would build shops and businesses in Pakistan that would generate wealth and moderation.

American officials involved in tribal region projects refused to discuss them on the record and provided only an outline of how they are proceeding.

The U.S. aid is part of a broader Pakistani plan to isolate extremists in the tribal areas, a belt of territory little larger than Vermont seen as the likely hiding place of Osama bin Laden.

Just 17 percent of the adult population – and only one in 30 women – is literate, while the infant mortality rate is nearly 9 percent. An estimated 60 percent of its 3.2 million people live in poverty.

Pakistani officials say the U.S. government’s development arm, USAID, is already supporting several teacher training colleges and funds are flowing into other pre-existing American programs, including police training and counternarcotics projects.

“If you try to build a school in (a militant stronghold) today, how long will it be there before it is attacked?” asked Samina Ahmed of the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank. “It is in the interests of the militants to make sure that the state isn’t seen to deliver services.”

The effort faces a key test in Bajur, the northernmost tribal area, where the army says it has broken up a Taliban mini-state and stemmed the flow of fighters into Afghanistan in an offensive that killed more than 1,000 people and caused widespread destruction.

Mohammed Jamil, a government official in Bajur, said American aid was paying for new roads, clinics and schools. He was vague on the details – perhaps intentionally, considering the risk of accepting American aid – but residents said they had noticed some changes.

A few miles away, a group of about 30 men toiled to lay foundations for a new road.

“It does not make any difference whether it is American or Pakistani money,” said Sardar Khan, a 32-year-old trying to break a rock with a hammer. “The good thing is that I got a job.”

Khan Zamir, a tribal elder in Bajur, said community leaders understood that funding for a rash of recent projects was American. He said no one had objected.

However, he quickly raised another concern: corruption.

“There should be strict monitoring of the use of the American funds,” Zamir said. “We don’t know if what America gave for us is reaching our areas.”

USAID is working closely with the FATA Secretariat, a government body that has drawn up a nine-year development plan for the tribal belt. It is also relying on an array of American consultants and contractors to lead its projects.

They face huge challenges to monitor what is happening on the ground – and avoid the fraud and waste that tarnished reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Several contractors declined to comment for this article, citing security concerns. At least two local government workers sent in to monitor projects have been killed.

Zafar Hasan, an official leading Pakistan’s development efforts, said his staff was afraid to take in equipment such as satellite positioning devices and digital cameras for fear of Taliban checkpoints.

“They say: ‘If we are caught with all these things we will be shot,’” Hasan said.

A European expert involved in the FATA projects, who asked for anonymity in return for speaking candidly, said the Americans risk “digging a pit” into which aid money disappears without a trace.

Schools are often commandeered by troops or militants in the tribal belt or converted into homes for local powerbrokers. Others fall into disrepair or lack staff and materials.

“If they are going to get the local population, rather than the local elite, on their side … you have to focus on services” by ensuring schools and clinics operate properly, he said. Associated Press writer Habibullah Khan in Khar contributed to this report. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. US aid effort under fire in Pakistan border area Comments Feb 26, 2009 5:05 PM (8 days ago) By STEPHEN GRAHAM, AP

US aid effort under fire in Pakistan border area Pakistani internally displaced people from the tribal region of Bajur walk a long a muddy street after a storm at the Jalozai refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, Feb. 13, 2009.

The DOD calculated that Pakistani loss from the Afghan war was $20 Billion per Annam. The US Aid of $1.5 Billion per Annam is peanuts when compared to what the US spends in Afghanistan on Aid. The Aid to Pakistan should be $150 Billion not $1.5 Billion per Annam. That would make a difference in Islamabad and the area. By eliminating the penury, child malnutrition and infant mortality, the US would be making a great investment in the future consumers of American goods and services.

End rendition. Find Missing Pakistanis. Repatriate Dr. Afia Gitmo is the best recruiting tool Bush could have gifted the terrorists
Prisoner 650: Dead Nation wants sister Dr. Aafia Siddiqui freed Selective Amnesia of Americans: Pakistan is the most mistreated friend in the world

How long can the wink wink nod nod farce of deadly drones go on US aid to Pakistan should be Non-Transactional grants not loans An FTA and elimination of tariffs on Pakistani textiles would enable Pakistan to export $15 worth of textiles. Better than any aid package this would reverse extremism

In a lopsided policy the US wasted $143 Billion in aid to Afghanistan and gave Pakistan $5 Billion. Egyptian loans of around $38 Billion were forgiven. Pakistani losses due to GWOT calculated by the US DOD were $20 Billion per year in 2001. These losses have quadrupled. Aid to Pakistan is less than aid to Afghanistan. The US uses Pakistani infrastructure to transport supplies without building or even maintaining the roads.

Joe Biden triples US aid to Pakistan:-too little too late. Aid should be 20 times that number to compensate for usage of bases, roads and lost opportunity

Afghanistan-Pakistan forgotten by Joe Biden

How to help poor Pakistanis, avoid enriching corrupt officials and save US taxpayer money. Eliminate trade barriers on Pakistani goods

Holbrooke facing Khyber Poltergeist & Ganges hobgoblin

Pakistan’s “Do More” list to the USA

Trade First not Aid First

Pakistan: An historic realignment/

Bypassing the aid trap in Pakistan
Similar stories:
•China to map out Africa strategy at forum in Egypt
China to map out Africa strategy at forum in Egypt
China will set the future direction of its burgeoning ties with Africa at a multinational forum in Egypt this month, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi was quoted as saying on Sunday.

Premier Wen Jiabao plans to attend the Nov. 8-9 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Yang said in an interview with the official Xinhua News Agency.

No details were given, but at the last forum in 2006, China pledged to double assistance to Africa by 2009, provide $5 billion in preferential loans and credits, cancel debts and establish a $5 billion fund to encourage Chinese investment.

•Chinese premier pledges funds, aid to Africa
Chinese premier pledges funds, aid to Africa
China’s premier on Sunday pledged $10 billion in new low interest loans to African nations over three years, offering the beleaguered continent sorely needed cash while dismissing criticism that Beijing’s motives in Africa are far from altruistic.

Wen Jiabao’s promise at the start of a two-day China-Africa summit was warmly received by African leaders and officials, most of whose nations confront a miasma of despair further accentuated by a global financial crisis that is only now showing signs of abating.

“The Chinese people cherish sincere friendship toward the African people, and China’s support to Africa’s development is concrete and real,” Wen said at a forum that attracted leaders such as Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir – who faces an international arrest warrant – and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. Both are heads of state out-of-favor with the West.

The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce has a simple idea for how the Florida Legislature could bring more jobs to the state: Stop cutting funding for schools.

”What we’re saying is no further cuts,” said Michael Burnstine, chairman of the chamber’s state advocacy committee. “If you don’t have educated people, you’re not going to be competitive in the world.”

The chamber’s top priorities for this year’s legislative session also include a request that the state restore funding for a proposed tunnel to provide easier access to the Port of Miami. The port is widely regarded as a key engine for the local economy.

World Trade Center Miami helps drive business to South Florida
When Charlotte Gallogly was growing up, she often spent Saturdays at the library reading about, in her words, “far away places with strange-sounding names.”

Today, as president of the World Trade Center Miami, she helps bring thousands of people from far away places to trade shows and conferences in Miami. The center, established in 1985, organizes some of the largest trade shows in the hemisphere, including Air Cargo Americas, Sea Cargo Americas and the Americas Food & Beverage Show. It also puts together events such as the State of the Ports, World Trade Week and International Women’s Day.

The two cargo events held in Miami last week and the food and beverage show, which closed on Tuesday, attracted thousands of visitors from scores of countries, as well as businessmen and government representatives from South Florida, said Gallogly, who took over as president of the WTC Miami in 1987 when the organization became operational.BY GLENN HUBBARD
www.washpost.com
Congress recently approved $7.5 billion in aid to Pakistan for social and economic development. The bill incited controversy by requiring that the U.S. secretary of state report to lawmakers on whether Pakistan’s civilian government keeps effective control over its military, because many observers accuse some in the Pakistani military of having tolerated or even aided Islamic extremists since the 1980s.

But the bill itself should raise questions. After all, does Pakistan, or the U.S. Agency for International Development, or any other agency that will implement the aid actually know how to successfully spend these funds? In other parts of the world, especially Africa, foreign aid has been a spectacular failure in promoting social and economic development. This bill promises more of the same.

The United States has given Pakistan more than $10 billion in development aid since 1954. What has become of those funds? It certainly has not helped produce the kind of stability and prosperity that would help Pakistan offer its people an alternative to extremism. Nor has aid worked in Africa. Nothing indicates that an additional $7.5 billion will yield better results.

All, however, is not yet lost. It will take time to disburse and spend the funds, and there could be a chance to recast the support in a more promising way. There is even an example of effective large-scale aid on which to draw: the Marshall Plan of postwar Europe, which is still recognized as the most successful aid program in history.

The essence of the Marshall Plan was loans to local businesses, which paid them back to their local governments, which used the money for commercial infrastructure to help those same businesses. The result was economic growth, employment and a stable middle class that opposed the popular communist parties across Europe. With creative adaptation, the same basic model can work in Pakistan.

Economic aid to Africa and Pakistan has tended to be allocated to government-directed development projects. More recently, such aid has funded projects by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), too. But all of the world’s prosperous countries became rich through the growth of a domestic business sector. India and China are the most recent examples of this. A thriving local business sector is the only known path to prosperity and stability.

Some might argue that Pakistan is too different from postwar Europe for a Marshall Plan to work. But consider Greece, a poor and war-torn nation when the Marshall Plan was implemented. By the time the plan was ended, Greece was well on its way to prosperity. This model can be reinterpreted to best suit the Pakistan situation: The kinds of loans can vary widely, and the commercial infrastructure can range from training for accountants to the more traditional ports and roads.

The World Bank’s Doing Business index ranks countries by how easy it is for citizens to start and run businesses. Among the 183 nations ranked, most of sub-Saharan Africa falls in the bottom half. Pakistan, at No. 85, is less anti-business than most poor countries, so a Marshall Plan there has a reasonable chance of success.

Right now, nothing in the package suggests that this $7.5 billion will do any better than previous development aid, largely because government and NGO aid projects make it harder for prosperity to take root. Aid projects hire qualified staff away from local businesses. For example, they deliver fertilizer to farmers instead of a local business doing it. And they remove incentive for Pakistan to make reforms that foster business development. After all, why make it easier for business when government and NGO projects give out so much money?

But a Marshall Plan would help Pakistan’s efforts to encourage its local business sector. The efforts are there: In August, Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani established the first Business Persons Council; it has 53 members from the local business community and is headed by the minister of finance. The council is to meet monthly “to recommend measures for improvement in business climate in Pakistan and develop a business and trade sector strategy for the country.” This is a major shift from tradition, in which the government Planning Commission was solely in charge of economic policy. Foreign aid should work with this new effort rather than at cross-purposes with it.

Former secretary of state George Marshall famously suggested fighting the spread of communism in Europe through local business. That strategy could contribute to the battle against Islamic extremism. The current aid package should become a Pakistan Marshall Plan — before it’s too late.

Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia Business School and a former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, is the author of Aid Trap: Hard Truths About Ending Poverty.