The Fata Sustainable Development Plan reflects the true spirit of the integrated and realistic approach of the government towards rapid development of the area and bring the respective people in the mainstream of development and prosperity at the national level.
This was stated by the Additional Chief Secretary, Fata, Javed Iqbal while addressing as the chief guest at the one day workshop on "Infrastructure Project Implementation in FATA - Challenges and Opportunities" which was held at Pakistan Academy for Rural Development, Peshawar under the auspices of Planning and Development Department of Fata.
The moot, besides the Secretary P&DD, Kazim Niaz, General Manager, Planning & Monitoring, Fata Development Authority, Managing Director, PPRA and senior officials of various nation building departments, was also attended by representatives from Corps of Engineers and 11 Corpse of Pakistan Army, Wapda, Shydo, NAS, USAID, FHA, heads of engineering consultants and construction companies and project directors of various development projects.
Javed Iqbal said that the essence of the workshop was to hold interactive sessions with all stakeholders, tied to infrastructure development in Fata and propose suggestions and reforms in improving the implementation capacities and with this spirit in mind, its title truly depicts the targets set before us. Therefore, he remarked, the implementation of the Fata Sustainable Development Plan has become a great challenge for all the concerned quarters especially the executing agencies.
To make the efforts result oriented in this connection, he said, there is dire need to further cement the internal co-ordination amongst all the concerned institutions and the executing agencies. In fact, the additional chief secretary said, the successful implementation on the programme is not only envisaged to bring a revolutionary change in the socio-economic uplift of the respective people but it also provides an opportunity to the concerned public and private organisations to add new feathers in the lists of their achievements.
He further pointed out that the government was quite conscious of the courageous initiatives of all concerned for working in a specific and challenging environment and assured that no efforts were being spared to ensure smooth working conditions. "Things have already improved to a great extent and the situation will be further improved with the passage of time in this respect," he said.
Appreciating the in-depth deliberations and valuable suggestions of the conference, Javed Iqbal said, indeed its outcomes have moved us more closer to our goals and would definitely contribute to further cement our resolve and re-orient our approach to derive maximum results of the investments being made for uplift of Fata.
Meanwhile, the workshop was divided into five thematic areas including Institutional Capacity in Fata; Public Sector Contracting System; Alternative Contracting Modalities; Capacity of Construction Market and Role of Engineering Consultants. After group discussions, presentations were held which were finally wrapped up by secretary, planning and development department of Fata.