PESHAWAR: The flow of foreign direct investment into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remained zero during the last three and a half years tenure of the PTI-led government as the province relied on loans, foreign assistance and federal receipts.

Adviser to the chief minister on information Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani told a news conference here on Wednesday that FDI didn’t come to the province during the last three and a half years due to the delicate security situation and bad governance.

“The security situation and bad governance during the previous government discouraged foreign investors,” he said when asked about the inflow of FDI in the provincial economy during the PTI’s tenure.

The adviser however said the situation had improved.

Govt blames it on delicate security situation, bad governance

“We expect investment from abroad in different sectors,” he said.

Mr. Ghani said Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who was in China, would invite Chinese investors to put money in different sectors of the province.

He said the CM was likely to sign three agreements in China and that would be the first FDI in the province.

Before forming government in the province, the PTI had claimed that foreigners were ready to invest billions of dollars in the province.

The adviser said the provincial government is negotiating with Chinese investors to build circular railway line to link Peshawar with Nowshera, Mardan, Swabi and Charsadda, execute 1200MW hydel generation projects, and build roads.

He said the government’s initiatives, especially steps for the eradication of corruption, had boosted the confidence of local and foreign investors, who were willing to put money in different sectors of the province.

Highlighting the achievements of the PTI-led ruling coalition, Mr. Ghani said the provincial government had performed well in all sectors of economy.

He said the total outlay of the annual development programme for financial year 2016-17 was Rs505 billion.

The adviser said Rs276.114 billion had been released to different sectors during the last six months and Rs167.804 billion of them had been spent on various projects.

“The ADP spending ratio remained 61 per cent during the last six months,” he said.

Mr. Ghani claimed that the government had invested in human resource development instead of spending budget on other sectors.

He said the assembly had passed a total of 135 bills during the last three years.

The adviser said the construction of 41 colleges was in progress, while 17 new colleges for boys and girls were included in the 2015-16 ADP.

He said public libraries and universities were being established across the province.

Mr. Ghani said Rs33 billion had been allocated for district governments in the current budget.

He said the establishment of Knowledge City was in the pipeline with Rs10 million already allocated for the project’s feasibility study.

The adviser said work on the rapid bus service project for Peshawar would be completed by Dec 2017 at a cost of Rs20 billion.

He said the government had yet to begin work on the project. Mr. Ghani said the Rs34 billion Swat Expressway would be in place by the end of 2017.

He said the government had planned the construction of a road from Margalla Hills to Changla Gali at a cost of Rs670 million, while flyovers would be constructed in Abbottabad, Haripur, Mansehra and Kohat.

The advisor said a large number of doctors, nurses and paramedics were appointed to the government’s health facilities in the province to improve health delivery system besides increasing the salary of medics and members of the allied staff.

He also said Rs20 billion were being spent on the provision of free emergency services to patients in government hospitals of the province.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2016