In a major win, Turkey announces its aim to launch around 50 development projects within Pakistan. A Turkish state-run aid agency will start almost 50 new projects in 2022 for the education, health, and agriculture sectors.
Muhsin Balci, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency’s (TIKA) program coordinator for Pakistan, made the announcement for TIKA’s 30th anniversary.
“Pakistan is full of talent and it gives us immense pleasure to give technical support to our brother nation. Pakistan is no foreign country for us. This nation has supported us unconditionally, and our hearts beat for each other,” said Balci on the occasion.
“The departments and companies come to us for our technical support and we try our best to give the best of the best service. Our aim is to start more than 50 projects this year in Pakistan that will facilitate the organizations in fostering young talent,” he further added.
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Turkish state-run aid agency will be starting almost 50 new projects in Pakistan in 2022 to help with the development of education, health, & agriculture
Muhsin Balci, Turkish Cooperation & Coordination Agency's (TIKA) programme coordinator for Pakistan, made the announcement pic.twitter.com/u4h0WdcMvd
— Developing Pakistan (@developingpak) January 23, 2022
Important to note, TIKA was established in 1992 to provide aid efforts to then newly independent Central Asian countries. Since then, TIKA has been working in more than 150 countries. It completed more than 30,000 projects since its establishment.
In Pakistan, TIKA set up five water filtration plants in three cities to provide access to safe drinking water to residents. It also installed 60-kilowatt solar energy panels at the Lakki Marwat District Hospital and set up the Emergency Department of the District Headquarter Hospital Upper Dir in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Pak-Turkish strong relations
Pakistan and Turkey enjoy a friendly relationship. The two countries have strong cooperation on various fronts for example defense and economic.
In November 2021, Pakistan and Turkey agreed to enhance bilateral trade and economic cooperation at a meeting of President Arif Alvi with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ashgabat on his visit to Turkmenistan.
The two leaders also agreed to further strengthen the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) to achieve its objectives. President Alvi said there was a need to work together to tackle the challenges faced by the region. He also thanked the Turkish President for Turkey’s principled stance on the issue of Kashmir.
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