LAHORE: Governor Balighur Rehman said on Tuesday that during the last four years the GDP rate in the education and health sectors had dropped instead of increasing.

“To provide education and health facilities, it is necessary that the economic development of the country and the tax-to-GDP ratio should be increased,” he said while speaking at a two-day conference on social policy financing at the National School of Public Policy (NSPP) here.

The governor said the NSPP was playing an important role in training civil servants and preparing them to face the challenges of good governance and public service delivery. He said he was happy to know that the school was promoting in-house research and think tanks. He said it was playing an important role in public policy research in the country.

Mr Rehman said there was a need to strengthen the links between academia, bureaucracy and development partners. He said there should be research and discussions on important topics with the collaboration of the school and the leading universities of the country. He said for social improvement, it was important that the officers should use the resources honestly, diligently and appropriately.

On this occasion, NSSP Rector Dr. Ijaz Munir spoke about the aims and objectives of the conference.

Earlier, Vice Chancellor Faisalabad College University Dr. Shahid Kamal and newly appointed VC of Sargodha University Dr. Qaiser Abbas called on the governor at the Governor House.

During the meeting, Dr. Kamal presented a cheque of Rs5 million from Government College University Faisalabad and Government College Women University Faisalabad to the governor for the flood relief campaign.

The governor said the universities had been mobilised to help the flood victims.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2022