Islamabad
Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar Thursday said the current arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Pakistan government would be the last one.
Talking to senior journalists here, the minister said the indicators were showing green signals as various sectors of the economy had shown progress whereas the industrial activities had also boosted.
He said there had been around 13 percent increase in the foreign remittances as the inflation also dropped down from over 14 percent to 12.4 percent whereas the industrial sector witnessed positive growth. The consumption of cement had also increased manifold, he added.
The minister said the establishment of economic zones was one of the important features of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and during the current year three special economic zones would be set up.
Asad Umar said Pakistan was becoming a center of attraction for investors.
Meanwhile, talking about the issues of twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, he said the construction work on Islamabad Metro would be completed during this month.
As regards the water shortage issues, he said both the cities had right to get 103 million gallons water from the Khanpur Dam, whereas those were getting only 2.5 million gallons water.
He said there existed a scheme under which 5 million gallons water could be transported. A committee had been constituted to check water theft of around 2.5 million gallons water to improve water availability situation.
He said instructions had been given for development of infrastructure for transporting around 100 million gallon waters to the twin cities. In addition, he said, approval was also given to a scheme for providing water from Ghazi Barotha. The work on the project’s feasibility had been initiated whereas advertisements were floated for hiring a consultant of international repute.—APP
