President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday advised the federal and provincial governments to consider releasing adequate funds to most important and critical developmental projects for early completion rather than spreading the resources too thin on a large number of projects without the prospect of early completion of any one of them.
He asked the Sindh Finance and Planning and Development ministers to hold meetings with officials of the federal ministries of Finance and Planning and Development for identification of early gestation of developmental projects benefiting the largest number of people.
Once such projects have been identified adequate funds may be released to them for their early completion in a given time frame. "There is no wisdom in allocating small amounts to scores of projects and not being able to complete anyone project well in time to reap its social and economic benefits", he observed.
The President stated this during briefings given to him in Bilawal House Karachi on the development projects in the province. The meeting was attended by Chief Minter Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Federal Communications Minister Arbab Alamgir, and Special Assistant for Water Kamal Majeedullah, relevant provincial ministers and senior federal and provincial government officials.
Briefing journalists, spokesperson to President Farhatullah Babar said that separate briefing sessions were held on the federal government development projects in Sindh, the development projects undertaken by the provincial government and the projects to build roads and bridges being carried out by National Highway Authority (NHA).
President Zardari asked the planning and finance officials that the development strategy should be so designed that the needs of specific regions are met while reducing intra provincial disparity. He also asked for innovative ways of resource mobilisation and financing of the projects. Public-private partnership and giving incentives of private entrepreneurs to build infrastructure communication projects on build, operate and own (BOO) basis can be an effective way of resource mobilisation and financing the projects, he noted.
The President said that a national strategy had to be devised with the help of international community and the private sector to undertake the rehabilitation and reconstruction work so that we do not merely rebuild but 'rebuild better'. "The task is too big and challenging and cannot be undertaken successfully by the government alone bound by archaic rules and regulations. It calls for innovative strategies and innovative ways of financing which should be devised with the help of international community and private entrepreneurs in addition to the government", he added.
Farhatullah Babar said that the President also directed that a separate meeting be convened to consider innovative approaches with the help of private sector both within the country and abroad. The NHA chairman Altaf Ahmed Chaudhry informed the meeting that the Authority had completed the Damage Need Assessment (DNA) of its projects and forwarded it to the Asian Development Bank, the lead agency for communications and transport sector. Rehabilitation of the damaged infrastructure is estimated to cost over Rs 17 billion, he said.
The President directed the NHA to complete on a war footing projects that are essential for the restoration of traffic and communication on all its roads and highways. The briefing was informed that in addition to the damage to NHA projects in the province over 1900-km of provincial roads including 27 bridges had been damaged, the reconstruction of which would cost over Rs 14 billion. The teams of World Bank and Asian Development Bank have visited the affected districts last week for damages need assessment (DNA), the meeting was informed.
The restoration of breach in Dadu-Moro road has been completed while restoration work on other ten roads in the province was in progress and would be completed in time. The President advised the government to seek Chinese assistance in new ways to prevent destruction of infrastructure like bundhs and dykes during floods. The President asked Special Assistant Kamal Majeedullah, who is proceeding to China as the head of delegation next week for this purpose, to submit his report on return and also share it with the provincial government.
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