LAHORE, Sept 22: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has urged the government servants to adopt a result-oriented culture instead of the prevailing activity-oriented approach.

Addressing heads of federal government departments and corporations operating in the Punjab at the Governor House on Wednesday, Mr Aziz said the public servants should be responsive to public issues and problems and accountable before the people.

The prime minister said he had in his first cabinet meeting directed setting up targets for each division of the government departments and would hold all the ministers and federal secretaries responsible for implementing those targets.

He said he was trying to initiate a management process which would impact everybody, adding: "Nobody is above accountability and everybody has to deliver and perform." The prime minister said he had served in 10 countries and could say that "our civil servants are second to none. The only thing lacking in them is exposure and training."

Mr Aziz said the government has started a training programme for civil servants and the first batch has already gone abroad. He said the government servants should keep their doors open to the public.

He directed the Small and Medium Enterprise Authority to focus on establishment of small and medium industry to gear up economic activity and generate job opportunities.

He said Wapda should ensure uninterrupted power supply to its consumers and enhance its generation capacity. "Wapda should remain ahead of demand of electricity," the premier added.

He was all praise for Governor Khalid Maqbool for monitoring performance of federal departments and providing valuable feedback to the government for improving quality of life of people.

The prime minister said it was a wrong perception that investment was going into real estate whereas indicators showed that money was being invested in real business. He said there was no harm in investing in construction business as secret of success of economies of Singapore and Hong Kong rested in their infrastructure development and investment in construction industry.

He told the gathering that last year there was an 18 per cent increase in large scale manufacturing sector which was very encouraging and defied the common perception that money was being invested in real estate.

Mr Aziz said there was a 35 per cent increase in import of non-oil and non-food items which proved that raw material and machinery was being imported, signalling greater economic activity.

He said image of the country has improved in the last five years and more people were visiting Pakistan today than a few years ago. Hotels have higher occupancy rate. The travel advisories issued by various governments have softened and "there is never a day when delegations do not visit Pakistan from abroad."

He, however, said more needed to be done to improve Pakistan's image and alluded that the president's policy of enlightened moderation would go a long way in achieving this objective. -APP