Staff Reporter
Peshawar
In an effort to contribute to Pakistan’s ’10 Billion Tree Programme’ initiated by the Government of Pakistan last year, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea and the KP provincial government officially inaugurated ‘Korea-Pakistan Friendship Forest’ in Haripur on December 10. The Korea-Pakistan joint project in collaboration with Korean business community would be very instrumental in enhancing awareness of the nation-wide movement to plant 10 billion trees built on the success of ‘The Billion Tree Programme’ in KP.
As a part of the official launch of the Forest on Tuesday, around seven thousands saplings were planted in Haripur, KP Province at the presence of H.E. Kwak Sung-kyu, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, Mr. Bahramand Khan, Secretary of the KP Public Health Engineering Department, Mr. Azhar Ali Khan, Chief Conservator of the KP Forest Department, and Mr. Miangul Adnan Aurangzeb, former MNA. The project of the Korea-Pakistan Friendship Forest was co-financed by Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), Korean business community including K-Water, Korea South-East Power (KOEN), Lotte E&C and Daelim Industrial, and the Pakistan Global Institute, a Korean educational institute. Several members of KOICA Alumni Association Pakistan (KAAP) also participated in the tree-planting event.
The Korean Embassy hopes to upscale the Friendship Forest over the next few years in partnership with various stakeholders, including the Korean business community in Pakistan. “The Korea-Pakistan Friendship Forest not only gives support for Pakistan’s nation-wide green growth initiative, but also symbolises the close friendship between Korea and Pakistan. Planting trees has been an important national campaign in Korea as Korean people we observe the tree-planting day on April 5, every year. As a result of the sustained efforts over the last 50 years, Korea had a huge success in the reforestation of the entire country, and Korean people came to be proud of having a green home land.” said Ambassador Kwak.
