LAHORE: Planning and Development Department Punjab (P&D) here Monday launched "The Punjab Economic Report 2017" that revealed Development of Energy, Health, Education and Infrastructure sector in Punjab, besides highlighting the challenges and way forward towards the economic growth.
Speaking as chief guest at the launching ceremony Provincial Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghaus Pasha said, "Punjab needs to harness the opportunities and not shy away from the challenges.
Punjab is a role model for other provinces and Punjab Economic Report will help us enhance our capacity in policy making and development." Finance Minister Dr. Ayesha Pasha focused on importance of the province in playing a crucial role in improving the lives of the citizens.
She reiterated the significance of evidence-based policy making and was of the view that this report would be beneficial for devising strategic development goals.
She explained how the province was making progress in achieving the targeted growth rate through improving the energy generation, fuel mix, and security situation of the province. She also highlighted that under the Growth Strategy framework, 2-million youth would be provided with adequate education and skills to ensure their employability.
P&D Minister Malik Nadeem Kamran, appreciating the efforts of PERI and P&D on the completion of PER, hoped that the report would assess the current economic situation, key performance indicators and the strengths of the province and also assist the government by identifying key areas where the province needed more attention.
Highlighting the Punjab government's commitment to economic prosperity, he stressed that growth must be pro-poor therefore every effort was being made to optimally utilize the limited financial resources purely for the welfare of the underprivileged segment of the society.
Senior Economist and Consultant Dr. Hafiz A. Pasha highlighted that Punjab was on track to achieving a growth rate of six per cent by the end of the year which would be the highest growth rate in eleven years.
He said that Punjab had shown a growth rate of five per cent in major crops in 2016-17, which was the highest in the last ten years.
He emphasized that Punjab needed to focus on providing employment to the youth of Punjab in order to take advantage of the youth bulge in Punjab.
He also highlighted the need to develop secondary cities in Punjab as part of its Urban Development strategy in order to reduce the burden on existing cities.
Earlier, P&D Punjab Chairman Muhammad Jehanzeb Khan, welcoming Cabinet ministers, experts, government representatives, business leaders, academicians & researchers to the launch of Punjab Economic Report (PER) 2017, said that the government had achieved the important task of holistically documenting the economy of Punjab.
He acknowledged the efforts of the Punjab Economic Research Institute (PERI) that worked closely with the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in the preparation of the report.
He said the province was focusing not just on accelerating economic growth but on achieving balanced, inclusive and sustainable economic growth which would improve the well-being of the citizens of Punjab. The 7th NFC award had shifted the fiscal balance in favor of the provinces and the 18th Amendment had given constitutional rights to the provinces to focus on human development in the provinces.
IGC Country Director Dr. Ijaz Nabi thanked the Chief Minister for providing an opportunity in first preparing the PGS 2018 and then subsequently PER 2017 in order to understand whether the province was on track to achieving the targets it had set for itself in its vision document.
In addition to providing an assessment of the PGS 2018, the report also provided an assessment of the opportunities available to the province in terms of CPEC.
He thanked PERI Director Dr. Mumtaz Anwar for his unrelenting commitments in the preparation of the report.
Senior representative of LUMS Dr. Turab Hussain presented the key highlights of PER 2017. He thanked PERI, P&D and the LUMS team for their efforts in the preparation of the report. He highlighted that the report was a compendium of the work done in all sectors over the last ten years.
The report presented an overview of the economy on socio-economic profile (poverty, inequality, regional disparities), structure (agriculture, industry, services), social sector (health, education, WASH), Infrastructure and Urban Development, IT, Provincial Investment in Energy, and Public-Sector Resource Management.
Environment Minister Begum Zakya Shahnawaz, Minister for Population Mukhtar Ahmed Bhart, Mines and Mineral Minister Sher Ali, Punjab Chief Secretary Zahid Syed, Secretary P&D Iftikhar Ali Sahoo, Country Director World Bank Patchamuthu Illangovan, government officers and representatives from academia were also present.
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