Five-year plan to be launched in December: Transformation of economy envisioned

Published July 21, 2013
Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal.—File Photo
Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal.—File Photo

ISLAMABAD: The government announced its development strategy on Saturday, including a five-year plan for 2013-18 and a ‘Perspective Plan 2025’ with the ultimate goal of making Pakistan a ‘developed country’ by the completion of 100 years of its existence in 2047.

The Federal Minister for Planning and Development, Ahsan Iqbal, said at a news conference that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had approved restructuring of the Planning Commission and his ministry would now be called the ‘ministry of planning, development and reforms’.

He said the restructuring would bring reforms in the economic as well as administrative structures and the ministry would become a development think-tank to steer the country on the path of transformational change and for creating a globally competitive knowledge economy.

The restructuring process will increase the membership of the Planning Commission by three members and add four new units for strategic planning and policy, reforms and innovation in government, development communication, and strategic and regional initiatives.

At present, the commission has only one member on board while the contracts of other members have expired.

Mr Iqbal said the government was issuing advertisements to fill the posts of eight members through an open competition on merit from the country and abroad.

The posts of chief economist and vice-chancellor of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics would also be advertised, he said.

The five-year plan will be ready by December and its seven priority areas will be energy for all; building new pillars for self-reliance and high sustainable growth through resource mobilisation, investments and exports; making private sector the driver of growth and promoting the public-private partnership mode and entrepreneurship; value addition in productive sectors for a globally competitive knowledge economy; developing modern infrastructure, including transit economy, economy, energy, information technology and trade corridor; initiating institutional and governance reforms for high performance government; and building social capital.

The minister said that while bringing value addition in the productive sectors, the government would focus on value addition from commodity to value-added products.

Institutional and governance reforms would be brought through public sector modernisation for quality service delivery, while social capital would be built through education skill, harnessing the potential of youth and social harmony, he said.

He said the Planning Commission had remained a disabled body in the past.

Now it has been decided that the prime minister will chair meetings of the commission so that policy decisions on development issues can be taken in time.

Mr Iqbal said the five-year plan would be synchronised with the term of the government.

“We are not an under-developed country, rather we are an under-managed country,” he said while explaining the government’s development strategy.

Under the plan, he said, the government would not only overcome the energy crisis but lay a strong foundation for meeting future needs under the integrated energy policy.

He said self-reliance would be achieved not only on the basis of remittances but the private sector would be given a leading role.

The minister said the previous PML-N government had prepared a roadmap for energy in 1999 and estimated production of 28,000MW by 2010. The situation would have been better if the roadmap had been implemented.

Mr Iqbal said the sole objective of the performance unit will be to review projects’ performance on a monthly basis and inform the prime minister. The projects will also be reviewed at quarterly meetings chaired by the prime minister.

The new development projects would be for the country as a whole and the future generations and their completion would lead Pakistan to emerge as a developed country.

The strategic policy and planning unit will prepare the perspective plan, coordinate with ministries and support them in developing effective sector strategies and policies.

The unit will identify key challenges for the government, develop five year plans, build the ministries’ strategic capabilities and develop strategies and policies.

A separate unit will be set up to deal with economic trade corridor. A Pakistan competitive unit will be set up to promote the country’s global ratings.

The minister said massive investments could have made in Pakistan during the past five years but investors had fled because of corruption and poor governance.

He said corruption and bad governance were the major concerns for investors rather than security.

“Still, investors are prepared to come back to Pakistan and the government will fully facilitate them.”

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