ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on Saturday approved 27 projects costing Rs31.3 billion including a foreign aid component of Rs3 billion.

The CDWP meeting was held here under the chairmanship of State Minister and Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr Muhammad Akram Sheikh.

Later briefing the newsmen, a spokesman of the Planning Commission, Asif Sheikh, said that it was the 6th meeting of the CDWP in the current financial year and a total of 171 projects worth Rs175 billion were approved.

In today’s meeting apart from the 27 approved projects two more development projects were conceptually cleared and it means that these had been approved in principle, he added.

The projects, he said included the establishment of Pak-China Friendship Centre Islamabad at a cost of Rs1.5 billion and Capacity Building of the Emergency services of Government of Punjab at a cost of Rs5.3 billion.

The spokesman giving details of the projects said that 11 infrastructure projects worth Rs25.4 billion, 13 social sector projects at a cost of Rs5.3 billion and three projects in other sectors costing Rs0.6 billion were approved by the CDWP.

For Punjab province 10 projects at a cost of Rs3.1 billion, four projects in Sindh costing Rs1.1 billion, one project each in NWFP (Rs2.3bn), Balochistan (Rs1.5bn), FATA (Rs0.4bn), Azad Kashmir (Rs0.5bn) and nine other projects costing Rs22.3 billion were approved, he elaborated.

He said that four projects located in Punjab had been approved on 50:50 cost sharing basis. The federal government would meet Rs0.5 billion and the balance would be borne by the government of Punjab.

The spokesman said four projects located in Sindh would also be shared on 50:50 basis and the federal government would contribute Rs0.7 billion for these projects.

He said that four projects costing Rs24.1 billion would be placed before the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for approval.

Replying to a question the spokesman said that allocation for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) would be increased to 6.3 per cent of GDP by the year of 2009-10.

Speaking on the occasion Lt Gen (Retd) Muhammad Zubair, Member Implementation and Monitoring, said that the technical committee on water reservoirs constituted by the government under the chairmanship of secretary water and power submitted its report to the CDWP in the meeting.

All the provinces have agreed that all five major dams announced by President Musharraf and approved by the federal cabinet would be built by the year 2016, he added.

He said the provinces had also agreed to the fact the building of the five major dams were vital for the country and should be completed by the stipulated time.

He added the report would also be submitted to Ecnec.

Member Projects Planning and Development Commission Dr Asad, Chief Population Planning Jalil Minhas, Members Water and Power Mr Amanullah and Naseer Gillani were also present on the occasion.—APP