ISLAMABAD – Tech billionaire Bill Gates has visited Pakistan, and had meeting with prime minister Shehbaz Sharif as they discussed shared goals in healthcare and financial inclusion in key meeting.
Bill Gates, head of the Gates Foundation, called on the premier at the PM House in Islamabad on Monday. Gates visited Pakistan at the invitation extended by PM Shehbaz during their meeting at the World Economic Forum in Riyadh earlier this year.
In their meeting, the Prime Minister briefed former CEO of Microsoft on the substantial progress Pakistan has made in digital financial services to achieve economic stability, enhance healthcare access, adapt to climate change, and eradicate polio.
The Prime Minister expressed his appreciation for the Gates Foundation’s crucial support in digitizing Pakistan’s economy. He emphasized that developing a digitized governmental ecosystem would boost revenue generation, improve governance, and enable increased funding for public welfare initiatives.
PM Shehbaz highlighted the shared objectives between the Pakistani government and the Gates Foundation, such as closing the gender gap, improving healthcare access, enhancing food security, climate change adaptation, and financial inclusion. He discussed both the progress and challenges in these areas with Gates.
Thanking the Gates Foundation for being the largest donor to Pakistan’s polio eradication program, the Prime Minister presented a robust strategy to address the rising threat of polio and the measures needed to eliminate the disease entirely from Pakistan. He reaffirmed the government’s strong commitment to eradicating polio, ensuring all state resources are utilized for the safety of polio workers, and pledged to personally oversee the national efforts until polio is fully eradicated.
Gates expressed gratitude to the Prime Minister for his dedication and personal involvement in polio eradication, and voiced confidence that with continued vaccination efforts and the government’s commitment, significant improvements would be achieved in the fight against polio.
Gates also underscored the importance of data science tools and digital technology in improving the lives of Pakistanis.
Both parties agreed to maintain their collaboration not only in eradicating polio but also in strengthening the healthcare system across all provinces and ensuring the welfare and prosperity of all Pakistanis, with a particular focus on women.
