11th five-year plan approved by Prime Minister

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has reportedly approved the 11th five-year plan with the direction that figures mentioned in the plan and Budget Strategy Paper (BSP) should be reconciled before publication to avoid embarrassment, well informed sources in Planning Commission told Business Recorder. Planning Commission, sources said, hired several consultants on the basis of personal relations instead of expertise and is under criticism for allegedly providing unreliable data at the highest level.
Giving the details, Planning Commission revealed that National Economic Council (NEC) had approved its recommendations regarding "framework for 11th five-year plan 2013-18" and authorised it to formulate and finalise the 11th five-year plan 2013-18 in consultation with key stakeholders including provinces and special areas.
The 11th five-year plan was based on the recommendations of 53 sub groups constituted during the 1000+ national consultative conference held in November 2013. The conference was chaired by the Prime Minister and attended by Chief Executives of all provinces and special areas as well as over 1000 stakeholders including experts, academia, civil society, provincial and federal governments. The first draft of plan was shared with the provinces and special areas and their input was incorporated in the draft plan. The plan provides operational details to achieve upper middle income country status for Pakistan by 2025. It outlines a roadmap and sets targets and timelines for transforming policies into effective and implementable measures.
The plan was geared towards developing human and social capital of the country by enabling universal access to education and health facilities, empowering women and eradicating poverty. Strategies have been devised to encourage public private partnerships in the development process. Moreover, energy reforms have been proposed and special emphasis has been laid on improving the performance of the large scale manufacturing sector. Transport, communications, external, financial, industrial, and services sector have been identified as important areas with high growth potential. Consequently, comprehensive action plans have been proposed in the document to improve growth rates for these sectors. In addition, plans for developing an enabling investment environment by crowding-in foreign investment have also been formulated to reduce the country''s reliance on foreign assistance for economic growth. Improvement in the governance systems was envisioned to be a major driver of economic progress.
The sources said all the Ministries, provinces, special areas and public sector agencies were urged to make concerted efforts in co-ordination with the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform to effectively implement the eleventh five year plan and align their resources and strategies to achieve its targets.