Staff Reporter Islamabad
The National Economic Council (NEC) on Monday approved the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projections for the financial year 2021-22 including the proposed growth target of 4.8%.
The sectoral growth targets approved for the next fiscal included 3.5% for agriculture, 6.5 % for industrial sector, and 4.7 % for services sector.
The National Economic Council, which met here with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair approved the Macroeconomic Framework for Annual Plan 2021-22. Chief Ministers of all the provinces and other members of the NEC participated in the meeting.
Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives presented the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) for 2021-22.
NEC was informed that the revised estimate for the total development outlay of the ongoing year was Rs. 1527 billion.
As against this the total development outlay for the next financial year would be over Rs. 2100 billion, including PSDP of Rs. 900 billion. This includes Rs. 244 billion for Transport & Communications, Rs. 118 billion for Energy, Rs. 91 billion for Water Resources, Rs. 113 billion for Social Sector, Rs. 100 billion for Regional Equalization, Rs. 31 billion for Science & Technology & IT Sector, Rs. 68 billion for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Rs. 17 billion for Production Sector.
The Council was informed that the focus of PSDP will be on Infrastructure improvement, Water Resources Development, Social Sector improvement, Regional Equalization, Skill Development, promotion of Science & Technology, and IT, as well as Climate Change mitigation measures.
The meeting was informed that the PSDP would cater to the government’s plans to increase focus on lagging areas and regions.
For this purpose, sufficient allocations have been made for projects of South Balochistan, various districts of Sindh, as well as for Gilgit Baltistan.
Allocations have also been made for infrastructure projects of southern districts of Punjab.
Similarly, an allocation of Rs. 54 billion has been made for the newly merged districts of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa. In the Social Sectors, Higher Education Commission has been allocated Rs. 42 billion.
NEC was informed that with the operationalization of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Authority, a number of PPP projects were also being expeditiously processed for implementation.
These include Sukur-Hyderabad Motorway and Sialkot-Kharian Motorway, which were at an advanced stage.
