''Five-year development plan being chalked out'': Ahsan says Planning Commission to be firmly restructured

Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal Saturday said a new five-year plan (2013-18) is being chalked out for development of the country. He was of the view that the Ministry of Planning and Development will be renamed as ''Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms'' and at least nine new members including the chief economist would be inducted in a transparent manner.
The minister said this while briefing media about the approval of restructuring Planning Commission plan by the Prime Minister. He said in light of the decision, the Planning Commission will be restructured to become a development think tank with a view to creating globally competitive knowledge-based economy.
He said the five-year plan will set out the development priorities of the government the first being addressing the energy crisis. He said the five-year plan would be announced in December 2013. The minister said it has been decided to develop Five-Year Plan (2013-18) to achieve the goals of Perspective Plan Pakistan 2025.
The minister said guiding principles of five-year plan comprises seven themes: 1) Energy for All (secure, affordable and sustainable), 2) Building new pillars for self-reliance and high sustainable growth through resource mobilisation, investments and exports, 3) Making private sector the driver of growth (Promoting public private partnership and entrepreneurship), 4) Value addition in productive sectors for a globally competitive knowledge economy (From commodity to value-added products), 5) Developing modern infrastructure (transit economy, energy, IT and trade corridor), 6) Initiating institutional and governance reforms for high performance government (public sector modernisation for quality service delivery), and 7) Building social capital (education skill, harness the potential of youth, social harmony).
About the appointment of the members, he said new members of Planning Commission would be appointed through an open competition on merit and selected from the national and international markets. He said that it is need of the hour to bring reforms immediately in the present economic structure and to transform the management of all the state-owned organisations.
He said the Planning Commission could not perform effectively as an apex economic planning and public policy think tank due to lack of focus and adjustment to the new realities and challenges. He said there is imperative need for reforms, increased role of private sector, civil society, media, IT; globalisation, devolution and NFC Award.
He said the Commission could not perform due to frequent changes of secretaries planning and development and relegation of PC to secondary role in economic decision-making. Appointment of members is not on merit compromising standards of qualification and experience and lack of investment in human resources development, he added. Monitoring and evaluation of projects capacity needs to be strengthened and technology driven, he said.
The minister said the Planning Commission plans to move to new paradigm of participatory and collaborative planning involving parliament, ministries, private sector, academia and civil society. Ahsan said there is need to promote lead role of the private sector as engine of growth by co-opting it as a partner in development process through institutionalised effective consultative process.
He said members of the Planning Commission would focus on policy, plan formulation and reforms. He said the commission would comprise; member (energy), member (implementation and monitoring), member (private sector development and competitiveness), member (Co-ordination), member (food security and climate change), member (science and technology ICT) member (development Communication, member (infrastructure & regional connectivity), member (social sectors and devolution), member (governance, innovation and reforms and member (research/VC PIDE).
He said the Prime Minister would chair at least two meetings of the Planning Commission. He said the Commission quarterly would present its progress report to the Prime Minister. Advisory committee under Minister for Planning and Development/DC PC will assist the PC in plan and policy formulation. About governance innovation and reforms, Ahsan said the system would be strengthened by using new technology. He said media should focus on politics while it should also debate on economy and development.
The minister said new units (i) Strategic Planning and Policy Unit, (ii) Reforms and Innovation in Government Unit (iii) Development Communications Unit and (iv) Strategic and Regional Initiatives Unit (v) Performance Delivery Unit, (vi) Pakistan Competitiveness Unit and (vii) Social Capital Unit (MDGs, poverty alleviation, etc, would be established. He said new units would be created by making internal adjustment and no additional manpower would be required. He said for each sector, a dedicated policy and reform cell shall be set up within the existing human and financial resources.