The National Economic Council has approved the Macroeconomic Framework for Annual Plan 2021-22 and GDP growth projections for the financial year of 2021-22.

The council met with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair on Monday while the chief ministers of all provinces and other members attended the meeting.

The proposed growth target of 4.8 percent was approved, with sectoral growth targets of 3.5pc for Agriculture, 6.5 % for Industrial Sector, and 4.7pc for the Services Sector.

The Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives presented the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for 2021-22.

The meeting was informed that the revised estimate for the total development outlay of the ongoing year is Rs1527 billion. As against this the total development outlay for the next financial year would be over Rs2100 billion, including PSDP of Rs900 billion.

This includes Rs244 billion for Transport & Communications, Rs118 billion for Energy, Rs91 billion for Water Resources, Rs113 billion for social Sector, Rs100 billion for Regional Equalization, Rs31 billion for Science and Technology, Rs68 billion for SDGs and Rs17 billion for Production Sector. 

The council was informed that the focus of PSDP will be on Infrastructure improvement, Water Resources Development, Social Sector improvement, Regional Equalization, Skill Development, promotion of Science and Technology, and IT, as well as Climate Change mitigation measures

The meeting was informed that the PSDP would cater to the government’s plans to increase focus on lagging areas and regions. For this purpose, sufficient allocations have been made for projects of South Balochistan, various districts of Sindh, as well as for Gilgit-Baltistan. Allocations have also been made for infrastructure projects of South districts of Punjab. 

Similarly, an allocation of Rs54 billion has been made for the newly merged districts of KP. In the Social Sectors, Higher Education Commission has been allocated Rs42 billion. NEC was informed that with the operationalization of the PPP Authority, a number of PPP projects are also being expeditiously processed for implementation. These include Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway and Sialkot-Kharian Motorway, which are at an advanced stage. 

Other major projects such as Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), KPT-PIPRI Freight Corridor, Kharian – Rawalpindi Motorway, Balkasar – Mianwali Road, Quetta – Karachi -  Chaman Highway are also likely to be launched during the year. The government has, for the first time made an allocation of Rs61 billion in PSDP for financing the viability gap of PPP projects, to make sure that PPP projects can be successfully implemented. Addressing the meeting the Prime Minister laid stress on speeding up the implementation of development projects.