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The Small and Medium Development Authority (SMEDA) in collaboration with provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and donors is implementing two projects for the economic revitalization of the newly merged districts (NMDs), erstwhile FATA. The first project namely FATA Economic Revitalization Programme (FERP) is an USAID funded project while the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is implementing it in collaboration with SMEDA.
The project is aimed to provide sustainable livelihood opportunities leading to long-term economic growth through mobilization and facilitating private sector investments into the newly merged districts, mobilize local authorities and entrepreneurs to identify and invest in areas of high demand and potential to sustain return.
The project is focused on the three districts of the newly merged districts ie. North and South Waziristan and Khyber. He said that though under the scheme 4300 micro enterprises of these districts will be provided a micro grant Rs 90,000. However, if the federal government takes up the matter with the donor and or UNDP for increasing per business grant limit and expansion of the project target area into the whole erstwhile FATA then the beneficiaries would be doubled.
The second project is the Economic Revitalization of KP and FATA (ERKF) Project. The project is administered by World Bank and is funded by the Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF).
The project is aimed at rehabilitation of business affected due to crisis in the newly merged districts, by providing matching grant support. For the purpose, the SMEDA has received over 30,000 applications from business owners of the region and a total accumulative request for grant support is over US$ 30 million. However, the total allocated fund under this project is US$ 4.2 million.
In order to match the rehabilitation needs of businesses in the merged districts and to bring the people involved in unlawful trade into a mainstream, the federal government through Economic Affairs Division should take up the matter with the World Bank for enhancing the 'Grant Fund' under the ERKF project for the businesses rehabilitation in merged districts. The project will resolve the immediate unemployment issue of these districts.
The authority has also proposed the constitution of Task Force Committee under the Anti-Smuggling Task formed the federal government to discourage the menace of smuggling. The proposed task force committee will be tasked to review overall economic structure and status of the area and develop a sustainable development plan for sustainable economic growth in the area.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019

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