NWFP Governor Iftikhar Hussain Shah has said that the Frontier province has every type of terrain providing not only great potential for tourism development but also for hydel power generation.
Talking to a 28-member group of participants of International Central Banking Course-2004, he said that this potential would definitely become a major source of income for this province in future.
However, he remarked that the geographical dislocation is the major hurdle in the industrial viability. "Since we have a very limited resource base, the province has to depend on federal transactions to meet its requirements," he added.
The governor said that Pakistan remained the frontline state during Afghan crisis and its this province, enjoying the same status, faced the major brunt of the problem. Due to such a situation, the governor said, presence of millions of Afghan refugees "remained the major burden on our economy".
Though till 1996, UNHCR used to share this problem but after that "we have been looking after them totally at our own".
Referring to the points raised regarding FATA, the governor said that law and order is maintained through the system of collective responsibility, which is not only highly effective but is also a unique feature in the entire country.
He said that overall literacy rate amongst females in Fata is three percent and even in certain areas it is as low as 0.5 percent.
"However, we have now embarked upon a crash program to raise the level of education, and 300 community schools are being established during the current year."
The governor said that despite revolutionary steps being taken for promotion of education in FATA the demand for new educational institutions is increasing. As far as economic sector is concerned, the governor said, agriculture related projects "are our main target and efforts are underway to construct as many small dams as possible".
Shafique Ahmad Siddiqi, Chief Manager of State Bank of Pakistan, and Masood Asghar of National Institute of Banking and Finance were also present on this occasion and later thanked the governor for providing them the opportunity of meeting him.