The Planning Commission of Pakistan is currently working on a long-term (5 or 10-year) Growth Strategic Development Plan which is likely to be enforced next year so as enable the country to enter a new economic era.
The Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr. Nadeem ul Haque, stated this while talking to a group of journalists here on Sunday. With a view to make this plan a success, consultation process has been started to take inputs from various stakeholders. First conference in this regard is being held on Monday in Lahore, while the second would be held in Sargodha, and the third in Tando Jam, he said, adding that such conferences would not be restricted to big cities.
The country has sufficient infrastructure, assets, skilled workforce and talented youth but the real issue is how to use them effectively, and prudently, for the development of economy and prosperity of people. "By these conferences, we would get new ideas and new approaches for best use of our assets," he said.
The themes selected for the conferences include; markets, productivity, innovations, cities, and young population so that consensus could be developed on new ideas, new approaches, and innovations for the uplift of the country's economy. The economic activities can not be generated in isolation and integrated approach has to be adopted to achieve the required results, he added.
"Our domestic markets are underdeveloped as compared to world, while cities are not so vibrant to become growth engine. Our basic aim is to first achieve the economic growth and second to make it sustainable,"he said. "Economic development can not be achieved only through launching projects but all things have to move to yield the desired results" he added.
Talking about reforms, Dr Nadeem said the reforms introduced without thorough debate and consultation process with the stakeholders can not be effective and thus unable to produce desired results. "We have been following Dr Mahboob ul Haq Model for the last 40 years and kept on launching different projects during this period while most of them, unfortunately, could not be completed.
Elaborating his, point, the Deputy Chairman said that Gwadar Port was an unplanned project, as a port was there but no linkage with the upcountry area ie road and rail had been made available. This project should have been launched with an integrated development approach to make it a success story, he added.
About the flood's impact on the economy, he said that the country is at present facing unprecedented flood which would severely impact the economic growth. Though the Planning Commission has tried to assess the economic losses three-day ago, yet it was too early and premature. The actual losses could be assessed after two-three weeks, he said, adding that flood damage could cause a decline in fiscal space.
On energy issue, he said though the government has announced national policy on energy conservation to deal with the power shortage issue in April this year but it has not yet been adopted at individual level.
Dr Nadeem ul Haque said that the Planning Commission is attaching priority to monitor projects. Besides monitoring through satellite, the Commission's officials are regularly visiting the projects being funded by the government, he said. "Moreover, we are trying to put complete details of all projects on the Commission's website," he added.