ISLAMABAD, Dec 14: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Tuesday said micro finance was a capable system to eradicate poverty and ensure basic needs of life, including education, health and community development , to improve the living conditions of the poor.

Addressing the concluding session of a conference on "Micro finance in Pakistan" held here, the prime minister said the government had accorded high priority to fight against poverty and initiated a number of projects, including Khushhali Bank.

The prime minister said the initiatives taken by the government had far-reaching effects on poverty reduction but he emphasised the need to promote these efforts with mutual cooperation and involving the private sector in expanding micro finance outreach to maximum poor households.

He said Pakistan was also getting benefit from the experience of many other countries to formulate effective policies to eradicate poverty through better use of micro finance.

"The main objective of the government is to alleviate poverty through acceleration of economic growth, development of human resource, creation of jobs in both urban and rural areas and targeting poverty interventions through micro finance."

The prime minister said it was estimated that by the close of 2003, the outreach of micro finance, served by some 2,931 institutions, had reached to 80.8 million families of which nearly 55 million were from amongst the poorest.

He said to reach the target of 100 million poor families by next year, the campaign would require a growth rate of 38 per cent, which was nearly the rate of micro financing at which it had grown in recent years.

Shaukat Aziz said with the help of the ADB, Pakistan had launched a multi-pronged approach to develop the micro finance sector. Highlighting the targets to eradicate poverty, the prime minister said the main objective of Khushhali Bank was to act as an instrument of poverty reduction by reaching out to the poorest families in the remotest places.

President Grameen Bank Bangladesh Prof Muhammad Younus said that he was impressed at the tremendous amount of support the micro-credit was receiving in Pakistan from the highest level of the government and the financial system. He added that did not happen in most of other parts of the world. -APP