The Planning Commission (PC) has proposed that provinces should generate funds from their own resources to complete the development projects as the Federal government is faced with severe financial constraints.
A source revealed to Business Recorder on Wednesday that Technical Wing of the Planning Commission has prepared a nine-point agenda that envisaged proposals to bring economic stabilisation in the country.
The Technical Wing in its agenda also gave different proposals to enhance the productivity of crops in agriculture sector. According to proposals, quality seed, balanced use of fertiliser, farm mechanisation and methods of efficient use of water should be introduced to bridge the yield gap. The offer of fair price to the farmers could encourage them to sow crops on a greater area, it said, and laid emphasis on better post-harvest technologies and demand-driven research for new technologies and innovations.
The Technical Wing expressed dissatisfaction over the current situation of agriculture growth, and said the agriculture sector had faced acute water shortage during the recent months and the water intensive crops, i. e. sugarcane and maize, fell short of the target, depicting negative growth of 18.5 percent and 7.5 percent respectively in 2008-09.
However, two major crops, namely cotton and rice, had registered positive growth of 7.3 percent and 13.5 percent respectively, it said. It suggested that prioritisation of ongoing PSDP projects for "Revitalising Agriculture" should be in line with the nine-point agenda for economic stabilisation.
THE FOLLOWING ARE OTHER PROPOSALS:
-- Rural employment generation through farm agri business development, revitalisation of seed industry with focus on hybrid, Bt cotton, Bt maize and hybrid rice, maize, vegetables and fruits.
-- Poverty reduction through small holder of livestock and dairy development, agriculture commodity storage and trade centers, olive production in Pakistan and develop projects and programmes on priority basis for funding under World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Friends of Pakistan assistance programme.
The Technical Wing expressed serious concern about non-implementation of energy projects, and proposed the establishment of a "national apex body" to take an integrated approach towards all energy related plans and policies.
It pointed out that the country was facing energy crisis and no addition of electricity generation had been made to meet the projected demand. Plans, made by the Planning Commission, had never been fully implemented during the last decade, it observed, and proposed to utilise wind, Thar coal, hydel and solar resources to generate electricity to meet the energy demand.
It said the self-sufficiency in electricity generation would lead to economic stabilisation in the county. The nine-point agenda included implementation of the idea to "Galvanise Industrial Competitiveness and Develop Supporting Trade Strategy" for economic stabilisation.
THE FOLLOWING ARE PROPOSALS TO IMPROVE COMPETITIVENESS: Development of new processes for efficient production, introduce automation and reduction in labour costs, evolving of new replacement of materials such as carbon fibre that would result in cost reduction, and improvement in quality of products. This will lead to economic sustainability.
The development of human resource would strengthen the economy, it said, and proposed upgradation of 6-8 universities to bring them at par with the leading universities of the world. Foreign partners should be lured to contribute faculty, and declare the upgraded universities as their external campuses. The agenda includes "Ideas Pakistan" programme to tap qualified people for the development of the country.
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