Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani on Thursday said that the provincial government is expanding the private sector role in the development process of the province and bringing reforms to develop social sector through private-public partnership.
In his inaugural speech at NWFP Development Forum here, he spoke about the reforms introduced by the provincial government in the public affairs and its strategy for the carrying the development in future. The forum was attended by the representatives of World Bank, Asian Development Bank,DFID, European Union and ambassadors of different donor countries.
Talking about reforms in the fiscal sector, he said that fiscal sustainability is important indicator of the health of the government, saying the provincial government is pursuing reforms in order to ensure the fiscal sustainability, enhance effectiveness and accountability of expenditures and strengthen resource mobilisation. He pledged the donor agencies that the government would continue reforms in this critical area of governance in future also.
He said that first and foremost priority of the provincial government is the promotion of education. He said that the province is seeking to improve access and quality of education, saying they are strongly committed to achieving universal enrolment and completion of primary education and to eliminating gender and regional disparities in education attainment. The education policy framework, the chief minister said also has the important objective of increasing participation in quality middle and secondary education, particularly among the girls the policy, he said is designed to increase equitable access to primary and secondary education. The Chief Minister said that the provincial government has started with elementary education but also intend to expand it to secondary education.
The government, he said has introduced a range of policy initiatives to expand school enrolment and attendance and to address regional and gender disparities.
The provincial government, he said also plans to introduce further steps to increase equitable access to quality education, such as upgrading schools and launching expansion programmes for middle and secondary schools, furthermore, he said that the provincial government also plans to introduce a policy of providing incentives to female teachers posted in remote and rural areas. The package of incentives that will be tried would include a financial allowance and making transport arrangements for teachers to attend schools where access is a critical constraint.
The provincial government, the chief minister said also currently considering introducing a programme of stipends for girls classes 6th to 10th in the near future.
Regarding health sector, he said that the government has implemented a number of programmes for controlling TB, preventing life threatening disease in infants and improving access to family planning and primary health care services. The TB programme, he added has been extended to all 24-districts in NWFP. Hepatitis B vaccination has been introduced across the province; the polio campaign is on track with reduction in the number of new cases in the last three years. Similarly, he said that a number of actions have been taken to strengthen the EPI programme including opening of new centres.
About the private sector role in development, the chief minister said that the provincial government realises the significance of private sector led growth, saying early outcomes from the March 2005 Investment Conference demonstrate good resonance with private sector regarding measures taken.
As part of NWFP Economic Report, the chief minister said, a number of sector studies were carried out and based on specific recommendations in these studies our government will operationalise the broad strategy into action plans to be implemented immediately and over the medium terms.
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