Islamabad June 07 2021: The National Economic Council approved the Macroeconomic Framework for Annual Plan 2021-2022 along with approval of GDP growth for financial year 2021-22. The growth rate for the Fiscal year 2021 is set at 4.8 percent in comparison to 3.94 percent achieved last year. Development outlay is approved at PKR2.1 trillion with provincial contribution of PKR1.4 trillion.
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A meeting of the National Economic Council was held under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan here in Islamabad on Monday. Chief Ministers of all the Provinces and other members of the NEC participated in the meeting.
Among sectors, Agriculture growth rate set at 3.5% for 2021-22 compared to 2.8 percent in previous financial year. Industrial sector growth target is set at 6.5 percent against 3.6 percent in Financial year 2020-21. NEC set 4.7 percent growth target for Services Sector that is expected to post growth of 4.4 percent during 2020-21.
This includes PKR244 billion for Transport & Communications, PKR118 billion for Energy, PKR91 billion for Water Resources, PKR113 billion for social Sector, PKR100 billion for Regional Equalization, PKR31 billion for Science & Technology including Information Technology Sector, PKR68 billion for Sustainable Development Goals and PKR17 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.
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 South districts of Punjab. Similarly, an allocation of PKR54 billion has been made for the newly merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In the Social Sectors, Higher Education Commission has been allocated PKR42 billion. NEC was informed that with the operationalization of the PPP Authority, a number of PPP projects are also being expeditiously processed for implementation. These include Sukur-Hyderabad Motorway and Sialkot-Kharian Motorway, which are at an advanced stage. While other major projects such as Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), KPT-PIPRI Freight Corridor, Kharian – Rawalpindi Motorway, Balkasar – Mianwali Road, Quetta – Karachi – Chaman Highway are also likely to be launched during the year.
The Government has, for the first time ever made an allocation of PKR61 billion in PSDP for financing the viability gap of PPP projects, to make sure that PPP projects can be successfully implemented. Addressing the meeting the Prime Minister emphasized on increasing the pace of implementation of development projects to ensure that the gains made through stabilization of the economy could be translated into economic growth resulting in the well-being of the people of Pakistan.