ISLAMABAD: The National Economic Council (NEC) approved on Thursday an ambitious 10-year plan called Vision 2025, envisaging Pakistan to be among top 25 world economies, universal primary education with 100 per cent enrolment, an increase in annual exports by six times to $150 billion and double power generation to 45,000MW by 2025.

Presided over by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and attended by all provincial and regional chief executives, a meeting of the NEC authorised the planning commission for regular monitoring of progress on implementation of the long-term development strategy through a performance delivery unit against key performance indicators.

The meeting approved a framework for the 11th five-year plan in line with broad outline of the Vision 2025 and directed the ministries, provinces, special areas and public sector agencies to make concerted efforts in coordination with the planning commission for effective implementation of the vision.

Based on seven key pillars are drivers of growth to transform Pakistan into a vibrant and prosperous nation by 2025 through a shared vision, political stability, peace and security, rule of law and social justice.

The vision has positioned human resource development at the top of national agenda by capitalising on existing social capital, strengthening it and improving the human skill base of the population to optimally contribute to and effectively benefit from economic growth. For this, the country has to make significant leap forward in areas like education, health and social development to take full advantage of its youth bulge.

NEC approves Vision 2025

Under pillar one it promises that a larger share of the GDP, at least 4pc to education and at least 3pc to health, would have to be allotted to achieve universal primary education with 100pc net primary enrolment, increase higher education coverage from 7pc to 12pc and increase proportion of population with access to improved sanitation from 38pc to 90pc.

Under pillar two for sustained, indigenous and inclusive growth, the plan promises to make every Pakistani better off by 2025 by removing a lot of existing horizontal and vertical, intra- and inter-provincial, as well as rural and urban inequalities.

The key goals in this case include a modern performance driven public sector, transforming Pakistan into one of the 25 largest economies in the world, leading to upper-middle income country status and increasing annual exports from $25bn to $150bn.

Under pillar three for a responsive, inclusive and transparent system of governance at all levels, from federal to provincial and district levels, will ensure an efficient and transparent government operating under the rule of law and providing security of life and property to its people.

It strives to develop a skilled, motivated and “results-focused” civil service, an effective regulatory framework and an infrastructure that leverages supporting technology and global best practices.

The goal here is to get a place in the top 50th percentile for political stability (bottom 1 percentile), no violence and terrorism (bottom 1 percentile), and control of corruption (bottom 13th percentile) as measured by the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators.

Pillar four promises sufficient energy, water and food security for sustainable economic growth and development. It plans to double power generation to 45,000MW and provide uninterrupted, affordable and clean ‘energy to all’. It also seeks to increase storage capacity and improve efficiency of usage in agriculture by 20pc and reduce food insecure population from 60pc to 30pc by 2025.

The pillar five – private sector led growth and entre-preneurship – aims to make Pakistan a highly attractive destination for private sector investment, with conditions that allow private investors to successfully participate in its development.

The target is to rank Pakistan in the top 50 countries on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Rankings and increase diaspora investment (via remittances) in private sector to $40bn.

Pillar six seeks to increase competitive knowledge and value-addition to utilise resources in a productive manner – based on merit, quality and innovation, instead of unproductive rent seeking behaviours. Key targets would be to quadruple contribution of total factor productivity to growth and improve Pakistan’s score on the World Bank Institute’s Knowledge Economy Index from 2.2 to 4.0.

Pillar seven seeks modernisation of transportation infrastructure, greater regional connectivity. Key related targets are to ensure reduction in transportation costs, safety in mobility, effective connectivity between rural areas and markets and urban centres, inter-provincial high-speed connectivity through road and rail networks including China-Pak Economic Corridor to make Pakistan a regional hub of trade and commerce and increase road density from 32km/100km2 to 64km/100km2, and share of rail from 4pc to 20pc of freight handling in the country.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2014