Pakistan gets support from Turkey’s housing agency

ANKARA

Pakistan's Punjab government has asked Turkey’s state-owned housing agency TOKI to share its experience and assistance in the construction of millions of homes.

The request came from the Punjab government's Urban Development Minister, Tanveer Aslam Malik, during a visit to Turkey on Sunday.

A Pakistani delegation came to Turkey to observe TOKI projects and get technical and practical support for 4.5 million of homes to be built in Pakistan.

TOKI chairman, Ergun Turan, had paid an official visit to Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, between Dec. 31, 2015 and Jan. 3.

The Pakistani delegation received information about the agency's projects carried out in the Turkish capital Ankara and its biggest city, Istanbul.

Malik praised the Turkish agency for its "high success" and said: "Therefore, we feel a huge impatience over sharing of your experiences. We have a deficit of 4.5 million homes. The realization of technical support and experience shared and discussed in Lahore will make us happy.

"We want to build 50,000 homes for low and middle-income groups in two years," the Pakistani minister added.

Ergun Turan said the Pakistani officials "especially want to learn the housing model built for low-income groups" adding that the delegation was informed about the agency's planning procedures, finance model, projects, construction process and legal procedure.

Stressing that TOKI had serious know-how, Turan said developing countries such as Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan wanted to cooperate and learn from the TOKI model.

"We share with abroad our experience and implementations in house production," the chairman added.