Donors appreciate transparency, governance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government institutions

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has rejoiced that concrete steps against corruption and bringing maximum transparency in the government machinery has started bearing fruits. Besides the people of the province, he said, it has also restored confidence of the international community and donor agencies in the development policies of the PTI-led coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and they are expecting increased support in this regard.
He was addressing as chief guest at the Strategic Dialogue (Donor Conference) on Development Partnership initiated by the KP government for donor countries and agencies at Islamabad. On the occasion, Senior Minister for Finance Siraj-ul-Haq, Senior Minister for Health & Agriculture Shahram Khan Tarakai, Chief Secretary Muhammad Shehzad Arbab and Additional Chief Secretary Khalid Pervez highlighted development strategies of the provincial government while the foreign missions' heads, country directors and emissary of 22 donor agencies, including World Bank, Asian Development Bank, DFID, USAID, GIZ, KSW, Swiss Development Co-operation (SDC), UNDP, JICA, AUS AID, EU, Norway, Canada and the Netherlands also spoke on the occasion.
They appreciated the policies of change and transparency in public sector institutions and anti-corruption measures of the provincial government and evolving development partnership with donor agencies for transparent use of donor countries tax payers' money.
They assured their full support and assistance in human development efforts of the provincial government. They appreciated the measures taken by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on reforms and good governance. They said the provincial government wisely switched its policies and priorities from material development to human welfare. "I am confident that the collective wisdom backed by technical expertise of the development partners, civil society, sustained political will and donors' commitment will provide necessary inputs for achieving successful results under the Strategic Development Partnership Framework (SPDF)," he said and reiterated the pledge of his government to achieve these outcomes vis-à-vis peace building and rule of law, economic growth and job creation, basic health, elementary and secondary education with additional focus on skills and technical education, gender equality, enhancing fiscal space, transparency and accountability and improved citizen partnership.
The chief minister thanked the donor agencies for generous support and assurances in furthering the developmental strategies of KP. He said that his government was also revamping its policing and security systems to mitigate security risks. He said the KP government welcomed assistance and inputs of our partners in augmenting our efforts in financial challenges related to peace and security in our neighbourhood. "I am pleased to note that the development partners are cognisant of these challenges and have debated their cause-and-effect relationship at length," he maintained.
He on behalf of the KP government assured development partners that they have planned elaborate development strategies to expedite and tap the growth potential of the province. The chief minister said that his government has initiated an ambitious agenda of transformational development whose key elements included improvement in governance and service delivery through reforms, accountability/transparency and bringing citizens closer to the state, economic development by harnessing comparative advantage of the provincial natural resources, institutional strengthening for better utilisation of resources, concrete efforts to enhance government-donors co-ordination.
"The pivotal element of government-donors co-ordination has been strategised through the pioneering strategic dialogue which commenced on 2nd October last year when the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and its key development partners agreed to adopt the Strategic Development Partnership Framework (SDPF)and it is based on the democratic principle of mutual accountability," he said.
He asked the mission heads and country directors of donor agencies to support him as head of the provincial government and honour promises as he has strong interest in the robust execution of the SDPF and speedy development of the province aimed at ameliorating lot of its people specially the poor. He however expressed satisfaction by the progress made since October.
He said he is optimistic that the sectors covered under the SPDF have the potential to address key development challenges in the province. "I am glad to note that this effort will now be augmented by the upcoming integrated development strategy which will facilitate the operationalisation of the SDPF," he added. Later, talking to media he claimed that the PTI-led government has successfully restored confidence of donor agencies and international community due to its transparent economic and fiscal measures with cover of legislation and all of them were quite sure now that their tax payer's money would be spent in transparent and judicious manner and will not be wasted through luxuries and loot by the rulers.