The National Economic Council has approved the total development outlay worth 2.1 trillion rupees for the next financial year, including Public Sector Development Program of 900 billion rupees.

The NEC, which met in Islamabad today (Monday) with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair, approved the Macroeconomic Framework for next fiscal year’s annual plan.

The development outlay includes 244 billion rupees for Transport and Communications, 118 billion rupees for Energy, 91 billion rupees for Water Resources, 113 billion rupees for social Sector, 100 billion rupees for Regional Equalization, 31 billion rupees for Science & Technology & IT Sector, 68 billion for SDGs and 17 billion rupees for the production sector.

The NEC also approved the GDP growth projections for the next financial year as 4.8 percent with sectoral growth targets of 3.5 percent for Agriculture, 6.5 percent for Industrial Sector, and 4.7 percent for the Services Sector.

The Council was informed that the focus of PSDP will be on Infrastructure improvement, Water Resources Development, Social Sector improvement, Regional Equalization, Skill Development, promotion of Science & Technology, and IT, as well as Climate Change mitigation measures.

The meeting was informed that the PSDP would cater to the government’s plans to increase focus on lagging areas and regions. For this purpose, sufficient allocations have been made for projects of South Balochistan, various districts of Sindh, as well as for Gilgit Baltistan. Allocations have also been made for infrastructure projects of South Punjab. Similarly, an allocation of 54 billion rupees has been made for the newly merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In the Social Sectors, Higher Education Commission has been allocated 42 billion rupees.

The meeting was informed that with the operationalization of the Public Private Partnership Authority, a number of PPP projects are also being expeditiously processed for implementation. These include Sukur-Hyderabad Motorway and Sialkot-Kharian Motorway, which are at an advanced stage. While other major projects such as Karachi Circular Railway , Karachi Port Trust-PIPRI Freight Corridor, Kharian – Rawalpindi Motorway, Balkasar – Mianwali Road, Quetta – Karachi – Chaman Highway are also likely to be launched during the year.

The Government has, for the first time ever made an allocation of 61 billion rupees in PSDP for financing the viability gap of PPP projects, to make sure that such projects can be successfully implemented.

Addressing the meeting the Prime Minister emphasized on increasing the pace of implementation of development projects to ensure that the gains made through stabilization of the economy could be translated into economic growth resulting in the well-being of the people of Pakistan.

Chief Ministers of all the provinces and other members of the NEC participated in the meeting.

Source: Radio Pakistan