PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif Thursday chaired a high- level review meeting on a five-year roadmap for the economic progress of the country. The roadmap is focused on decreasing inflation, alleviating poverty and providing employment. The Prime Minister said consultations should be held on the plan with stakeholders from different sectors of the economy, adding without wasting any time, implementation of projects for economic stability should be ensured. Shehbaz Sharif said a schedule of implementation for the projects should be presented and steps should be taken on a priority basis to speed up progress in agriculture, livestock, information technology, foreign investment and small and medium industries. He said the government would reduce its expenditure and no wastage of public money would be allowed.
The Prime Minister has done well by ordering preparation of a five-year roadmap as it would envisage clear guidelines about implementation of the vision of the government to restore economic stability and provide much-needed relief to different segments of the society. The plan should be evolved after getting necessary input from all stakeholders and intensive internal discussions and once finalized there should be no laxity in its implementation. Efforts should be made to complete the exercise well before presentation of the forthcoming national budget so that the next year’s programmes and estimates are based on the overall framework of the five-year plan. In fact, groundwork has already been undertaken and it would not be difficult to fine tune the roadmap in line with the election manifesto of the PML(N) and aspirations of the people of Pakistan, whose main concerns remain the skyrocketing inflation and lack of employment opportunities. The meeting was informed in detail about the roadmap for economic progress and proposed measures in electricity, agriculture, livestock, exports, small and medium enterprises, taxes, information technology, small and medium enterprises, investment, and privatization. The remarks made by the Prime Minister give some idea of how the government intends to pursue further as he laid emphasis on increasing tax collection through digitization, as has also been highlighted by the new Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb during his first visit to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). Similarly, the Government wants to fast-track privatization of loss-making public sector entities, which is a sure path to saving several hundred billions. Caretaker Minister for Privatization Fawad Hasan Fawad worked diligently to clear hurdles in the way of expeditious divestment of these entities and it is hoped the Government would take advantage of the situation in moving forward in a decisive manner. However, it must be ensured that the privatization programme should not end up in disposal of profit-making entities as we witnessed in the past. Sky is the limit to exploit the potential of the country in agriculture and IT sectors but for this to happen, the Government will have to harmonize its strategies, clearing bottlenecks in the way of development of these two vital sectors that have the capacity to take care of most of the economic woes of the country. It is encouraging that the Government has decided to provide subsidies on fertilizer directly to farmers besides unveiling plans to solarize agricultural tube wells as part of a comprehensive initiative to modernize farming practices and enhance energy efficiency in the agricultural sector. Development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on modern lines can also help unleash potential for industrial development. As for the energy sector, it is time to decide the fate of generation and distribution companies once and for all, close down plants based on costly fuel, invest on alternative resources and upgrade transmission and distribution systems, especially replacement of inefficient transformers. In a welcome development, Federal Minister for Energy Musadik Malik has announced that directives have been issued to public sector oil companies to establish separate entities for renewable energy, aiming to foster cost-effective electricity production while safeguarding the environment. The Prime Minister definitely has an efficient team to help realize the agenda of his Government. All ministries, divisions and institutions should be given time-bound targets to achieve and progress should regularly be reviewed by the Federal Cabinet and may be SIFC.
