ISLAMABAD: The upcoming federal budget must focus on expanding and easing the environment for social infrastructure spending such as on hospitals, bio/genetic pharma production units, nursing teaching, and student housing facilities besides construction of low-cost housing schemes.

This was stated by Aftab Ahmad, a renowned capital market professional and an expert director of ISE Real Estate Investment Trust, while talking to Business Recorder, here on Saturday.

Inviting attention to the special lending rate of three percent financing announced by the SBP for construction of healthcare facilities due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Aftab stated the scope of this special rate of financing must be expanded to include low-cost housing and other social infrastructure projects. He further said that each and every provincial government must announce the provision of land for developing above kind of infrastructure facilities in their respective provinces.

Former MD of Lahore Stock Exchange and Islamabad Stock Exchange (ISE) said that as the things appeared, it was not hard to imagine that the budget exercises by all governments would become futile due to the ever worsening economic situation of the country.

Hence, it will be only through such innovative focus that the infrastructure development activities could lead to somewhat sustainable job placement opportunities and boost in the private sector investment in the country. Aftab especially highlighted that the governments must prioritise the construction of labour colonies alongside all existing industrial estates on low-cost basis.

These colonies could offer attractive installment schemes for transferring the ownership to the labourers working in the respective industrial estates.

Besides these, the low-cost labour hostels should also be planned in the neighborhood of all industrial estates of the country. Aftab stated that the provinces of Punjab and Sindh had recently enacted good quality Public Private Partnership Acts, and there was now a need to exploit the opportunities through low-cost financing and tax regimes.