During the meeting, Izhar Hunzai, a consultant with ICIMOD, gave an overview of the proposal. Seerat Asghar, Federal Secretary at the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFS&R) , assured that required policy interventions would be made for linking mountain communities to the market. Dr Iftikhar Ahmad, Chairman of PARC, highlighted the importance of mountain peripheries and the need to strengthen these niches to open new economic corridors. Different stakeholders from Gilgit Baltistan and Chitral like WWF, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), Karakorum International University (KIU) , MARC, Agriculture Research Institute Chitral, and government representatives from Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well as the Planning Division, Government of Pakistan attended the meeting.

Dr Abdul Wahid Jasra, country representative for ICIMOD Pakistan, and Mr Hunzai delivered the vote of thanks and assured everyone that the project proposal would be improved according to the participants’ suggestions for timely submission to the donors.

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