The Punjab Planning & Development Department remains committed to a development strategy that fulfils the needs and aspirations of the people while different development projects are being executed on a fast speed by the Punjab government.
Provincial Secretary Planning & Development Punjab Iftikhar Ali Sahoo said this while addressing the delegation of participants of post-induction course for Provincial Management Service (PMS) Probationers, led by Mubashar Ali Instructor & Co-ordinator Management Professional Development Department (MPDD) at P&D Complex, Lahore.
Sahoo said the P&D department has hired qualified experts from private sector to get benefit of their professional experience to give boost to the economy. Robust continuous system on monitoring all the development projects is being operated efficiently and effectively, he said.
Secretary P&D said that 'Punjab Growth Strategy' would provide an adequate safety net for the bottom quintile of the population. In the coming years till 2018, Punjab needs to grow at 8% per annum to provide jobs to nearly 1 million people entering the workforce every year. This growth target is similar to that proposed in the Government of Pakistan's Vision 2025 which sets doubling of current GDP as the target. A doubling of GDP growth will require substantial increase in investment in physical and social infrastructure, in downstream agriculture, manufacturing and services activity.
A private sector-led Growth Strategy will ensure that the public sector investment program is designed to leverage public-private partnerships in the provision of infrastructure that "crowds in" private investment in downstream production activity, he said.
Highlighting the duties and responsibilities of the officials, he said that civil servant now has to be professional and people expectations from civil servants are increasing day by day.
At the briefing session Sr. Chief Co-ordination P&D Javed Latif highlighting the departmental structure, role and functions of P&D Department and also ADP guidelines, said that Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) is the highest development forum for approval of development schemes in province. Total size of current Annual Development Program (ADP) 2016-17 is Rs 550 billion from which Rs 265 billion has been allocated for on-going schemes, while Rs 206 billion for new schemes and Rs 79 billion have been allocated for other development programs, he added.