PESHAWAR: Caretaker Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Azam Khan was called on by Federal Secretary for Economic Affairs Division Dr. Kazim Niaz and a representative of the Asian Development Bank for Pakistan here on Friday.

Various matters related to foreign funded projects being executed in province especially in the Newly Merged Districts came under discussion.

Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry and Additional Chief Secretary Imtiaz Hussain Shah were also present on the occasion. It was agreed that special steps would be taken to accelerate pace of work on the ongoing foreign funded projects in the province to ensure their completion in the stipulated time frame.

It was decided that the caretaker Chief Minister will hold monthly progress review meetings in order to speed up work on these projects whereas, the Chief Secretary will make arrangement for funding gap of these projects so that these projects are executed without any interruption.

Similarly, Additional Chief Secretary was directed to take necessary steps to remove the bottle-necks hindering the smooth execution of the projects. However, issues that could not be resolved at the level of Additional Chief Secretary will be taken up at higher level.

It was also agreed to identify new development projects to be executed under foreign funding in the newly merged tribal districts.

The chief minister directed the authorities concerned to identify such development projects that could benefit the maximum population.

He termed the foreign funded projects as of public importance, and said that the benefits of these projects should reach the target population without any delay. He directed them to take all necessary steps in order to ensure completion of the projects within the stipulated time lines.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023