PESHAWAR, Dec 15: Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has said that his government is giving priority to industrialization and skill development to overcome poverty in the province.

“More than 40 per cent of the NWFP’s population is living below the poverty line, the only solution to it is industrialization to create more jobs for the people and utilize the available resources,” said Mr Durrani, while speaking as a chief guest at a workshop organized by the Skill Development Council (SDC), NWFP, here on Monday.

He said that the government had initiated work on a dam in Malakand with an electricity generating capacity of 80 megawatts. An industrial estate was being established to utilize the electricity and to create job opportunities.

The chief minister said that construction of small dams in Tank, Dera Ismail Khan and Karak districts was also under consideration to irrigate land and enhance agricultural produce.

Mr Durrani said his government would extend every possible help to the projects aimed at skill development.

About education policy of the MMA-led provincial government, he said that it had already made education till matric level compulsory and free uniforms were being provided to the students of primary schools.

The chief minister said that the federal government had agreed during a recently held meeting on the NFC award at Islamabad to increase the NWFP’s share from the present 37 per cent to 50 per cent, which would be spent for the installation of industries and establishment of vocational training institutes to facilitate the desiring people in getting skill enhancing training.

He urged the philanthropists to establish small industrial units at the grass-roots level to impart training and job opportunities to the dwellers of the remote areas.

Expensive loan were obtained in the past, which were at present being paid with 14 interest to the federal government.

“We are in negotiations with the federal government to obtain loan at three per cent interest and retire the past liabilities,” he said.

The chairman of the provincial chapter of the SDC, Haji Javid, said that his organization had established 131 institutions in the province where training had been imparted to 7,200 people to the day.

He said that like Punjab, Zakat funds should be diverted for the vocational training of the people, because the fund always remained unutilized.