PM directs ministries to ensure enhanced participation of private sector in uplift schemes

• Imran Khan directed the ministries to ensure enhanced participation of the private sector in development projects as the government has limited available resources to carry out development schemes.
• The Prime Minister said there were various such schemes in energy, infrastructure, tourism, communication and other sectors where the government could expedite the development process.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday directed the ministries to ensure enhanced participation of the private sector in development projects as the government has limited available resources to carry out development schemes.

He was chairing a meeting about expediting economic process and initiating uplift schemes in various sectors with public-private partnership.

He said there were various such schemes in energy, infrastructure, tourism, communication and other sectors where the government could expedite the development process and initiate billions of rupees uplift schemes by facilitating the private sector, simplifying the existing laws and implementing ease of doing business.

The meeting discussed various policies and existing procedure for initiation of development projects with cooperation of public-private partnership and private sector.

The prime minister directed the ministers and chief secretaries to identify such schemes in their respective departments where from just facilitation and simplifying laws, development schemes could be initiated by expending less financial resources.

The prime minister directed the ministries to ensure participation of private sector in development projects and review the present laws to provide them all possible facilities and remove existing hindrances on priority basis.

The prime minister also called for reviewing the law of public-private partnership so that participation of private sector in development process could be encouraged and facilitated.

The prime minister emphasized upon coordination and making further improvement among various ministries and federal, provincial departments to ensure uninterrupted implementation of development schemes. He also highlighted to concentrate on enhancing capacity of the ministries and provincial departments.

The meeting was told that the development projects not only accelerate economic process but also provide job opportunities. However, it was further informed that owing to limited resources of the government various important development projects could be implemented.

The meeting was told that the government was making all out efforts to promote public-private partnership in uplift schemes by providing all possible facilities to the private sector so that the process of social and economic development was expedited and create job opportunities for the youth.

Prime Minister Imran Khan told the meeting that youth were the valuable asset of the country and emphasized upon the need to harness their true potential. He said there was a need to quit the traditional methods and adopt out of box thinking to achieve that goal.

The meeting was attended by Minister of Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Minister for Communication Murad Saeed, Minister for Gilgit Baltistan and Kashmir Affairs Ali Amin Gandapur, Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination Dr Fehmida Mirza, Minister for Information Technology Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Minister for National Food Security Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Minister for Planning Asad Umar, Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Finance Advisor Dr Abdul Hafiz Shaikh, Trade Advisor Abdur Razak Dawood, Chairman Investment Board Syed Zubair Gilani, Secretaries of respective ministries, provincial chief secretaries, Chairman Naya Pakistan Housing Authority Lt.Gen (retd) Anwar Ali Haider and senior officials.