By Karim Madad ISLAMABAD, Feb. 23 (INP-WealthPK) Pakistan has received €3.8 billion worth of German technical and development assistance since 1961, WealthPk has learnt. Pakistan has been a recipient of German development assistance since the founding of German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in 1961, Director of Economic Affairs Division (EAD) Saeed Chaudhry shared this with WealthPk. The volume of assistance was determined in biennial review meetings between BMZ and EAD held alternatively in Berlin and Islamabad. The focus of cooperation has largely been on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) and Punjab. The projects in other areas pertain to strengthening civil law enforcement in Sindh, rehabilitation of vocational training centres in Quetta, Balochistan water supply, and water and sanitation extension programme in Gilgit-Baltistan. An agreement signed between the two countries in 1972 on technical cooperation forms the basis of bilateral cooperation. For the past five years, Saeed said, the focus has been on various initiatives including good governance, renewable energy and energy efficiency, basic education/vocational training, health and sustainable economic development in Pakistan. The development cooperation by BMZ is dealt through two vehicles: the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and Credit for Reconstruction Bank (KfW). GIZ, Saeed said, proposes projects and accordingly spends budgeted public funds as development assistance corresponding to the technical assistance agreements, while KfW, which works as a credit bank inter alia, lends for development related projects within Germany as well as in developing countries through the financial cooperation agreements. There are two types of agreements signed with Germany. The first  is technical cooperation agreement (GIZ) under which the German government makes available at its own expense contributions in form of personnel, inputs, and, where appropriate, financial contributions. The second type of agreement is Financial Cooperation Agreement (KfW) in which the government makes available at its own expanse contributions in the form of personnel, input and where appropriate, financial contributions. Saeed further said G2G negotiations were held on November 2, 2021 in Islamabad. The meeting was informed that a commitment had been made to resolve the pending issues with the provincial revenue authorities till June 2022 and phase out German development activities in those provinces. Since the last negotiations on development cooperation in 2019, the German government has committed an additional €32.25 million for bilateral technical and financial cooperation. Regarding the current portfolio technical cooperation, Saeed said 11 projects worth a total of €147.5 million had been committed with disbursement of €60 million.