KARACHI, Feb 9: A five-member mission of the International Monetary Fund held a meeting with the Sindh government here on Saturday to review the pace of the devolution process and of the ongoing development projects in the province.

The meeting, presided over by the Sindh minister of finance, planning & development, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, was attended by federal secretary-general finance Mueen Afzal, Prof Anita Ghulam Ali and Maj-Gen Ehsan Ahmed (retd), provincial ministers of education and health, respectively, secretary education Nazar Husain Mahar, secretary finance Fazalur Rahman, secretary local government Qamar-u-Zaman, secretary health Khalid Latif Chaudhry, secretary labour & transport Raja Muhammed Abbas and other officials.

The IMF mission, led by Klaus S. Enders, Division Chief, Middle Eastern Department, is visiting Pakistan for carrying out first review under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility. It has held several meetings with officials of the Pakistan government as well as the provincial governments since Jan 30.

The provincial ministers and secretaries briefed the mission about the devolution of power plan, reforms so far introduced in different sectors and development schemes undertaken in health, education, industries and local government departments.

Dr Hafeez told the mission that the Sindh government was effectively implementing its reforms agenda with remarkable achievements. It had restored the confidence of international donor agencies and the private sector.

“The provincial reforms programme, launched by the present government, is under way with the assistance of the World Bank, and the road-sector development programme being funded by the Asian Development Bank. Several other projects are also being negotiated,” the minister said.

As regards liabilities, encouraging the private sector and launching of development schemes, he informed the mission that the provincial government had so far cleared unpaid bills of the previous governments amounting to Rs11 billion, promoted public-private partnership, completed 900 development schemes and had undertaken 30 new development projects concerning agriculture, health, education and coal mining.

He told the mission that the number of provincial taxes had been reduced from 23 to 11 besides curtailing the number of stamp duty from 70 to 35. The number of stamp duty would further be reduced in the next budget, he said, adding reforms of the property tax had resulted in a 20 per cent increase in the collection, and professional tax would also be improved and rationalized to enhance provincial revenue.

Apprising the mission of establishment of district governments and fiscal matters related to them, the minister said the Provincial Finance Commission was working on devising a formula for distribution of resources among different tiers of local government and, in the meantime, accounts officers had been posted at the district level to release funds to district governments directly without the involvement of the accountant-general.

Prof Anita Ghulam Ali told the mission that the government had introduced drastic measures to raise the standard of education involving the community and the private sector. Emphasis was being laid on improving the middle standard education and the monopoly of the Sindh Textbook Board had been ended and now the publishers of repute would be approached for publishing textbooks.

She said there were the Institution Management Committees, with industrialists as members, in technical education institutions to impart training to youths according to market needs. Moreover, a children development centre had been established to combat child labour in the province.

The minister of health informed the mission that the government had launched a TB control programme with the assistance of the World Bank and the Expanded Program for Immunization was also under way to get rid of polio. As regards health services, he said the contribution of the private sector in providing health care was 65 per cent and that of the public sector was 35 per cent only. He also apprised the mission of the five-year health plan that would cost billions of rupees.

Secretary Industries Raja Mohammed Abbas informed the mission that the government would offer 1,100 new industrial plots on Super Highway under the Site phase-II besides providing gas and other facilities. The government also planned to upgrade the seven existing industrial areas besides expand the Hyderabad Site and establishment of an agriculture export processing zone on Super Highway near Karachi. The policies of the present government had resulted in the establishment of 24 new industrial units at Site Kotri by the private sector.

MEETS GOVERNOR: The IMF mission called on the Sindh Governor, Mohammedmian Soomro, here in the Governor‘s House.