rime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Thursday said fulfilling the basic needs of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) was the government?s foremost priority, and said the challenge was being dealt on warfooting basis. In his opening remarks while chairing the National Economic Council, the Prime Minister said the rehabilitation of over two million IDPs would be done with due responsibility.
The Prime Minister said the government was giving highest priority to addressing the difficulties of people who borne hardship in defeating terrorism. He said, ?We must plan now and set aside resources for the rehabilitation of IDPs, reconstruction of affected infrastructure and revival of economic activities on their return and hope this will happen in near future.?
Gilani said there was a need to move economy to the path of stable growth and also remove structure imbalances and economic disparities. He said the government would use the financial assistance and support by the Friends of Democratic Pakistan and from other bilateral and multilateral sources in an efficient, effective and transparent manner.
The Prime Minister stressed for moving from short term economic responses to a broader well-defined medium term development strategy. He termed the people of Pakistan as great asset, and said investing in them by providing best quality education, health and social protection services would bring high returns.
He said the government moved decisively during 2008-09 to restore macroeconomic stability, otherwise, he added the economy would have gone into default. He said that with stringent measures, the economy had now stabilized while fiscal and balance-of-payments position had shown marked improvement and foreign exchange reserves had increased to a comfortable level.
The Prime Minister said the trade-off between stabilization and growth was high and the economy had slowed down considerably. He said as the industry and construction sectors had contracted due to domestic slowdown, energy shortage and global recession, there was a need to take definite steps to revive the manufacturing sector.
The Prime Minister said another challenge was to remove the structural imbalances and economic disparities, adding that the government was giving high priority to the development of Balochistan and FATA for which allocation of development resources had increased substantially.
He said for current fiscal year the federal government had allocated Rs. 50 billion for PSDP of Balochistan as well as additional Rs. 9 billion for budgetary support, Quetta Development package and development of other areas to be identified by the members of the Balochistan Assembly.
The Prime Minister said the economy of country was still facing severe infrastructure constraints in the form of energy and water shortages and the government had already taken a number of steps to overcome them. He said the federal PSDP 2009-10 would address the structural constraints that are hampering growth and competitiveness of economy.
He emphasized that the government would continue giving high priority to social and infrastructure development, and added that due to resource constraints, the government was encouraging public-private partnership and timely completion of projects.
The Prime Minister said for the first time in Pakistan?s history, the government had launched a major income support programme for the poor people in the form of Benazir Income Support Programme and the coverage of this programme would be further extended during 2009-10 for which sufficient resources would be set aside.
The Prime Minister said another challenge was to use donor assistance and support from the Friends of Democratic Pakistan and other bilateral and multilateral sources efficiently, effectively and in a transparent manner. These additional resources, he added would help in the economic recovery process and development in key sectors but would not be a cushion to postpone reforms to make the economy more efficient and competitive.
The Prime Minister said the country is facing to move from short-term economic responses to a broader, well-defined medium-term development strategy for which the Planning Commission has accordingly initiated work.
He said that for the consideration of NEC, an approach paper for this plan had been formulated, titled ?Investing in People? which not only reflects the major economic agenda of the Peoples Party but is also a common economic objective of all the political parties in Pakistan.
The Prime Minister invited all stakeholders including the parliamentarians, civil society, and youth to debate and discuss the parameters of future growth strategy as spelled out in the Approach Paper so as to ensure its success by developing ownership of the plan. This will express our resolve that we are not only tackling our short-term problems, but as vibrant nation thinking ahead towards our medium-term and long-term future, he added. The meeting was attended by the Federal Ministers, Governor NWFP, Chief Ministers of the four provinces and Prime Minister AJ&K.