Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has called upon regional countries to make joint efforts for achieving common goals of poverty alleviation, literacy, sustainable socio-economic development, and mitigation of climate disaster impacts.  

He was speaking at the inaugural plenary of 25th Sustainable Development Conference in Islamabad, which was jointly held alongside the 6th South and Southwest Asia High-level Political Forum and Policy Dialogue on SDGs.

The Minister urged international financial institutions to establish a special fund to provide interest-free loans with a grace period of up to 30 years for the developing countries to cope with climate disasters.

Meanwhile, addressing a function of the National Flood Response Coordination Centre in Islamabad, Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal said the government has prepared a framework for making Pakistan a climate-resilient country.

He said the framework would be presented before the international community.

The Minister said the coordinated efforts by federal and provincial governments and all concerned institutions during the devastating floods in the country helped in mitigating the flood damages.

However, he said challenges are still there which would be dealt with a new format and institutional setting with provinces.