(Karachi) Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that public-private partnership is need of the hour for the country's progress, local media reported on Tuesday.

Chairing a meeting to review pace of work on different public-private partnership projects being carried under the Public Sector Development Programme in Islamabad, Imran stressed the active participation of the private sector in the development process of the country.

He added that government is fully committed to providing a conducive environment to the private sector. The premier maintained that the Board of Investment is being fully activated to provide facilities to the foreign and local investors.

During the meeting, the PM was apprised that work on about 50 different public-private partnership model development projects worth billions of rupees under the Public Sector Development Programme is underway in different phases.

The meeting was informed that 14 projects worth Rs978 billion would get approval in the next three months, whereas 18 projects costing billions of rupees would be awarded in the year 2021-22.

The officials told the prime minister that two important projects including Sialkot-Kharian Motorway and Sukkar-Hyderabad Motorway at a cost of 233 billion rupees have been approved by the Public-Private Partnership Authority.

On the occasion, Imran directed the governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to present a progress report on the implementation of federal and provincial development projects and also submit detail of the future plans, their distribution at the local level, and the progress made so far.