ISLAMABAD – Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms, Khusro Bakhtiar said Saturday that the government had allocated 80% of the total Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the upcoming fiscal year (2019-20) for timely completion of around 295 ongoing projects all across the country.
Addressing a press conference to highlight salient features of the annual development programme, the minister said that despite financial crunch and hardships, the federal government had allocated Rs 951 billion development funds for the upcoming fiscal year.
The minister said that focus of the development programme was on less developed areas, building water reservoirs, promoting knowledge economy and higher education.
He said that the government had allocated Rs 48 billion for uplift of less or under developed areas and regions of South Punjab, South Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and ruler parts of Sindh while Rs 76 billion have been allocated for the development projects of Balochistan province.
He said that Karachi, the economic hub of the county, had been ignored in the development funding in the past, saying that Rs 34 billion would be spent on 41 development projects of the city during the upcoming fiscal year.
He said that the government also earmarked Rs 8 billion development budget for health and education sector projects in Islamabad.
The minister said that for improving the condition of electricity in the country, the government had allocated Rs 80 billion in the federal PSDP 2019-20 for various projects of this sector.
He said that the government had enhanced development funding for water sector from 10% of total development funding during the PSDP 2018-19 to 12% and would spend Rs 70 billion for water projects, especially developing big dams including Diamir-Bhasha, Mohmand and Dasu dams.
The minister said that agriculture sector was also among the priorities of the government, for which development allocations had been enhanced from just Rs 1 billion during the ongoing fiscal year to Rs 18 billion for upcoming year.
In addition, the minister said that keeping in view the climatic change and its impact on the country, the government had allocated Rs 9.5 billion for Clean Green Pakistan and tourism development programmes.
For the development of Azad Jammu and Kahshmir, the government had allocated Rs 62 billion development funding.
He said that an amount of Rs 43 billion had been earmarked for Higher Education Commission and Knowledge economy projects while Rs 10 billion for Youth Skill Development Initiatives.
