Staff Reporter
Peshawar
The Khyber Pakthunkhwa government has planned a three-year Economic Revival Plan worth Rs29 billion featuring 43 major initiatives in nine sectors in order to boost COVID-19 hit economy of the province. Azm-e-Nau (spirit of KP)’s inclusive plan builds on local strengths and embraces global trends was a medium and long terms strategy would mainly cover nine key sectors including economic growth, small and medium term enterprises, jobs for development, energy response, health, education, governance, social sector and public works in the aftermath of COVID 19.
Flanked by Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Information and Higher Education Kamran Bangash, Secretary Planning and Development (P&D) Hamayun Khan said that 78 integrated development projects with 148 sub schemes worth Rs150 billion were developed under Accelerated Implementation Program (AIP) for different socio-economic sectors for merged areas (erstwhile Fata).
Highlighting two years performance of his department, the secretary said development of merged areas was a cornerstone of Govt policy and Rs159 billion were provided under Tribal Decade Strategy (TDS 2002-30) for its speedy development. Implementation of AIP was underway in all seven tribal districts with special focus on strengthening of communication and roads infrastructure, health and education’s development besides bolstering tourism, sports, energy and construction of small dams.
He said a record 2000 PC-I was approved for different sectors in last two years including for Sheikh Badain park in Lakki Marwat. Similarly, Rs 4 billion including Rs two billion each by Federal and KP Government have been released for 10billion trees afforestration project (10BTAP) whereas Rs3.3 billion would be spent on water management in merged areas. In 2019-20, 459 ADP projects were approved including 249 for KP, 88 in merged areas and 122 for AIP while work on 404 was in progress. Similarly, 129 Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) schemes were approved and work on 125 schemes was underway in KP.
