PESHAWAR, July 11: The NWFP Governor, Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, has said the $90m World Bank loan under its structural adjustment credit facility will help boost the provincial economy by making significantly important investment in the hydel power generation and agriculture sectors.

Talking to a World Bank delegation here on Thursday, the governor said the province had great potential in the hydel power generation and agriculture sectors.

The governor told the visiting team led by the Bank’s country director Abid Hassan that the government had already completed feasibility studies and prepared development strategies to execute a number of projects to utilize the potential the province had in the hydel power generation and agriculture sectors, says an official handout on Thursday.

“The recently agreed first tranche involving US $90m from the World Bank would prove to be of great help to exploit these resources for the uplift of the people,” the handout added quoting the governor.

The visiting team said the province had tremendous potential for hydel power generation in its north. However, in its south, the vast barren land covering over 600,000 acres needed irrigation water to bring a green revolution in the area.

To  attract investors and to ensure  a meaningful investment in the province, he said, the government had already started work on the restructuring of the Sarhad Development Authority to be named as Industrial Investment Facilitation Agency. The same would be entrusted with the task of providing one window operational facilities to the prospective investors to get all their requirements fulfilled within one month time, he added.

To make this new organization more realistic and purposeful, he pointed out, almost 50 per cent of its administrative control would be shared by the private sector, he remarked.

Similarly, the governor said, the role of the provincial public sector Sarhad Hydel Development Organization would be restricted  only  to  policy  formulation,  regulation  and facilitation. In this respect, the SHYDO’s small power generation stations were being leased out to the private sector, he said.

“We have pinned great hopes with the hydel power resources of the province and if we could harness this resource it could prove to be of great help to generate sufficient income to develop our infrastructure in the health and education sector,” the handout said.

Apart from this, the governor said, the Basic Health Units situated in the far-flung areas of the province were being focused  upon to ensure availability of  better  treatment facilities to the people at their door steps.

In the education sector, the governor said, the province had already re-vitalized the Frontier Education Foundation and the same had resulted in the creation of six new girls colleges in different parts of the province last year and similar number of girls colleges would be established during the current financial year.

Besides, he said, another organization Frontier  Elementary  Education Foundation was  also  being established on the pattern of FEF. The new entity would focus to improve the primary education sector in the province.