Dear all,

I am privileged to address as President/CEO of the largest specialized Bank in the country serving the agriculture sector particularly small farmers and rural poor for the last 49 years. Since my assuming charge at ZTBL in September last year, I have studied ZTBL deeply with an objective to guide for development of a strategy which could make ZTBL a sustainable, vibrant progressive institution and ensure a forward looking role for ZTBL in development of agriculture sector in Pakistan. Reforming and redirecting ZTBL is a challenging task but I know every step in the right direction is going to bring this institution close to the purpose for which it was created.

ZTBL is the only institution with total focus on agriculture, the back bone of Pakistan's economy, and a key player for alleviating poverty by ensuring greater outreach for cost effective and timely availability of credit to the farming community. Private sectors initiative is understandably lacking in this important economic sector with inherent risks. Therefore the agricultural loans provided by commercial banks are mostly tied to large agro based industrial projects in sectors like sugar, milk and juice plants etc. The real needs of the small farmers are production loans for agri inputs, and development loans for farm machinery and implements, which are almost catered by ZTBL. In addition ZTBL is required to play another important role in uplifting rural areas with special focus on women.

The Bank is increasingly meeting the growing demand of the farming community in line with the Government's policy to revitalize the agriculture sector to play its role in strengthening the Pakistan's economy. During the year 2009 the disbursement of agri loans has increased from Rs. 55.9 billion in the year 2007 to Rs. 77.6 billion, registering an increase of Rs. 22 billion in just one and a half year since my taking charge of the Bank.

Besides financing, we need to form partnerships with other countries to import latest technologies (financed through multilateral/bi-lateral sources) without which we will be left behind despite our competitive advantage in terms of climate and availability of fertile lands. Therefore I invited a number of delegations from Asian Development Bank, China, Australia and USA dealing with agricultural related products and non-traditional items. The objective was to gain knowledge and experience from these countries and to apply such experience locally to increase the income of the poor farmers, I am glad to share with you that as an out come of these interactions ZTBL will not only benefit in obtaining technology but arrangement of credit lines through these visiting delegations is also expected as they are patronized by their governments. We plan to continue such interactions.

The Bank's vision is to be the lead bank dedicated to serve the financial and technical needs of the farming community efficiently, competitively and on a sustainable basis to strengthen the agriculture sector leading to success of the Bank and the farming community. I feel immense pleasure to say that ZTBL has now become a vibrant and self-sustainable financial institution, while new agricultural technologies and various innovative packages of customer friendly products and services have also been introduced. This is all due to hard work, dedication and motivation of ZTBL team, which has resulted in taking financial health of the institution to new heights as well as meeting the credit and technological needs of our farmers contributing to the overall development of the agriculture sector.

I take this opportunity to congratulate and appreciate all my colleagues and every member of our team who's untiring efforts have made it possible to achieve the highest ever performance of the bank in all sphere of its operations i.e. disbursement, deposit, gross profit, and reduction in non-performing loans*(Link for Performance Indicators). This commendable performance in the last two years of the present Government has been due to the dynamic leadership, support, vision and direction of the Honorable President of Pakistan Mr. Asif Ali Zardari and Honorable Prime Minister of Pakistan Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani for mechanization of farms, uninterrupted credit supply, expanded outreach that guided the Bank's management to translate the vision of the People's Government into reality.

Now that ZTBL team has been assured that all good work would be rewarded, I do hope that the present pace and dedication would continue by our professionally competent team. Every member should resolve to surpass the last year's highest performance, using their best abilities and extending fullest cooperation to accomplish new dimensions for the Bank, and set an example for other institutions to emulate.

Agriculture sector of Pakistan has an immense potential to become a driving force to accelerate the pace of growth in the country's GDP and to achieve the Government's target to put the economy on a fast track and sound footings. Let us all join hands to be part of the green revolution and make Pakistan stronger and self sufficient in all walks of life.

PAKISTAN ZINDABAD

MUHAMMAD ZAKA ASHRAF
PRESIDENT, ZTBL