ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has sought technical cooperation from Turkiye for the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) control and vaccine production, and a Turkish expert-level delegation will visit Pakistan soon to explore avenues for collaboration.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has decided to seek Turkiye’s technical support for developing Pakistan’s indigenous FMD vaccine production capacity.
The proposed cooperation was also linked to Pakistan’s ambition to establish disease-free zones and strengthen access to international meat markets.
Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain and Ambassador of Turkiye Dr Irfan Neziroglu in a meeting on Wednesday discussed concrete measures for strengthening bilateral cooperation in agriculture, livestock, vaccine production, human resource development and valueadded food exports.
Since livestock development and domestic production of FMD vaccine emerged as major priorities, the envoy expressed Turkiye’s willingness to extend technical cooperation to Pakistan.
The two sides also discussed the findings of recent exchanges between livestock experts of both countries. Both sides recognised that improved animal health standards and domestic vaccine production would contribute to expanding Pakistan’s livestock and meat export potential. The two sides also agreed to translate the longstanding strategic partnership between Pakistan and Turkiye into practical initiatives through institutional linkages, technical collaboration and direct engagement between relevant ministries, universities and experts.
A key focus of the meeting was capacity building and technical training.
Pakistan informed the Turkish side of its plan to send an initial group of around 30 participants to Turkiye under the proposed training programme for 100 trainees.