May 20, 2006	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 21, 1427

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PESHAWAR, May 19: Donor agencies on Friday agreed to support the NWFP government’s efforts to fully utilise the province’s potential in hydroelectric power generation, tourism, agriculture and industrial sectors.

The NWFP Development Forum, which ended here on Friday, urged the provincial government to improve social sectors besides focusing on tapping its vast economic potential to accelerate growth, create more jobs and reduce poverty.

Representatives of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Department for International Development and Germany and South Korea agreed to hold review meetings with the provincial government to discuss ways and means to explore the province’s potential.

They said that they would visit the provincial capital in the next fortnight to discuss development strategies put in place by the provincial government.

“The Asian Development Bank and other donor agencies have already been capitalising in social sector and the government must explore other sectors, which have great potential to increase economic growth and generate revenue,” said representative of the ADP.

He urged the government to ensure proper utilisation of funds, provided by the bank for various ongoing projects in the social sector.

Foreign delegates also called for formulating a serious plan for exploring the province’s tourism sector, construction of hotels and improving roads, adding that image-building was vital for promoting tourism.

They said that the government should focus on conservation of irrigation water and farm-to-market roads.

The representative of the Department for International Development said that his organisation had been working on a possible rural livelihood-based ‘poor district programme’ to focus on areas that still remained under-aided and under-developed.

Highlighting the importance of hydel power sector for investment, provincial additional chief secretary Ghulam Dastegir said that the government had designed a policy to facilitate foreign investors in the power generation sector.

He said that the province was collaborating with the federal government on building small dams to address the issue of water conservation, adding that the sites identified for dams in Kohistan district were safe from future earthquakes.

Local private sector representatives proposed fresh feasibility studies in industrial, power generation and agriculture sectors in collaboration with international donors.

Representative of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry Nauman Wazir criticised the provincial government for interfering in the Bank of Khyber affairs.

He said that the government should accelerate the bank’s privatisation and allow its board of directors to work independently.

Mr Wazir stressed the need for changing the curriculum of technical education institutions, saying that additional subject should be included in the curriculum to ensure provision of skilled manpower in public and private sectors. He also called for the transfer of equity participation fund from the federal government to the province.

Local industrialists expressed concern over the law and order situation in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas and the Provincially-Administered Tribal Area.