Economy to grow 7.25 per cent.

[TopCat]

It was 4.8 % this year and 5.2 % next year according to ADB. It will take alot of time for you to catch up with us because our infrastructure and logistics is already developed and we are ahead by like 10-15 years in that department. To top that once CPEC takes off in a year time it will be a game changer.

We are building the costliest 6 lane 1500 Km expressway in the world. That will bring our total lengh of expressways to 2700 - 3000 km.

The good news is India , Pakistan and BD are developing at a fast rate.

Why arr you building 6 lane highways when USA does not need them. Its not only building which comes from 100% loan. You have to pay them back, not only that you have a huge maintenance cost for 6 lane highways. Does your industrial and revenue capacity allows such massive project? Dont you think thes are steroid projects which will become white elephant one day.

 

[idune]

Why arr you building 6 lane highways when USA does not need them. Its not only building which comes from 100% loan. You have to pay them back, not only that you have a huge maintenance cost for 6 lane highways. Does your industrial and revenue capacity allows such massive project? Dont you think this ate steroid projects which will become white elephant one day.

you got to laugh to such idiotic comments.

 

[TopCat]

you got to laugh to such idiotic comments.

Only person makes idiotic comment is you, some fititious journalist with no name made some observation to you instead of putting that in black and white in their own newspaper.

 

[Mage]

These so called Bangladeshis are doped with indian and awami propaganda of hatred against Pakistan without knowing real picture of Pakistan. I am personally well aware of Pakistani infrastructure, which are 10-15 years ahead of Bangladesh existing condition. In many case much better than what available in greater india. I had spoken to group of journalists who visited Pakistan were from all flavors of Bangladeshi news media, including indian and awami influenced media journalists (from prothom alo and kaler kontho). According to all of them they were shocked on facts

1) misconception that Pakistan is war torn country but in reality that is not true. They felt more safe than in Bangladesh.
2) infrastructure and quality of life (with SOME exception of SriLanka) in Pakistan they found much advanced than anywhere in South Asia.

Having that understanding, plus investment of $52 billion in infrastructure, industry and economic activities, Pakistan will excel further in infrastructure, economy and living standard than any other country in South Asia.

Let these doped up awami cheer leaders confined to their own idiotic bubble.

Any link to verify what you've said here?

I wouldn't be very surprised if Pakistan have better infrastructure than us though

 

[TopCat]

Any link to verify what you've said here?

I wouldn't be very surprised if Pakistan have better infrastructure than us though

Pakistan do have far better infra than BD but a lot of them turned white elephant. For example, despite having capacity they cant run most of their power plant due to financial and fuel crisis.

In every investment you you have to keep in mind about the balancesheet.

 

[bluesky]

Well not today but maybe a South Asian Union is possible in 2050, too soon? Then 2070? Western countries have peaked. They are not going to grow much. Many of them are even on population decline with people over retirement age increasing.
We the South Asian ones have a lot of room to grow and eventually surpass them. Indian economy likely to even beat USA's by 2050. We should be in top30 economies by 2030. Top 20 by 2050. Pakistan should be in a similar position as well. We just need to keep the upward growth going. Corruption is the biggest threat I see on the way. Sadly we suffer a lot from it. If it can be tackled even a bit it will do wonders for us all South Asian brothers and sisters.

You are living in a western country. I would request you to understand the low living standard when you next visit BD. It remains as usual a Least Developed Country (LDC). Only a few years ago a country like ours was called Underdeveloped Country. The UN was requested by the 3rd world countries not to call them underdeveloped. So, the new title LDC.
I think, the GoB is trying its best under the critical circumstances that prevail in the country. There have been many achievements so far. I have my personal endorsement to the efforts this govt is making to build new power plants. The govt understands that the private businesses will not invest in new plants unless they are assured of electricity. Note that when there is no power, there is also no industries, too. No industries also mean there will be no new employment.
Let us not think too far. We better bite a five year imagination, say, from 2015 to 2020. What kind of progress we will make by this five year period. I think, @7.0% per year growth the GDP will be 1.5 times that of last fiscal. Not bad for a country which was and still known as a basket case, wrongfully, though.

 

[Imran Khan]

good job BD

 

[Khan_21]

Why arr you building 6 lane highways when USA does not need them. Its not only building which comes from 100% loan. You have to pay them back, not only that you have a huge maintenance cost for 6 lane highways. Does your industrial and revenue capacity allows such massive project? Dont you think thes are steroid projects which will become white elephant one day.

Pakistan do have far better infra than BD but a lot of them turned white elephant. For example, despite having capacity they cant run most of their power plant due to financial and fuel crisis.

In every investment you you have to keep in mind about the balancesheet.

Our current 6 lane highway's length is about 1000 km . We had our first 6 lane back in 1997 from Islamabad to Lahore . Nawaz sharif has a bit of obsession with building extensive roads . The roads you see in Lahore or Islamabad are some of the best you will see anywhere . Countless other Expressways are under construction . Call it his fetish . Wherever he goes he starts building roads , flyovers and expressways . If you happen to land in Islamabad or Lahore at times it gives the impression of being in a developed country . . Islamabad more because it is a planned and developed city with rarely a slum or poor in sight . I will give you some pictures of nawaz sharif's obsession with roads and expressways .

Lahore (He regularly wins his party elections from there ) .

Gulberg Avenue , Lahore

Islamabad - Lahore 400 KM Expressway

Peshawer - Islamabad 155 km Expressway

There are 4-5 further similar expressways with a combined length of 929 km . 1500 km further is under construction . Islamabad being a developed and planned city 8-10 lanes are quite common there .

And yes ofcourse these have cost billions of dollars . Call it a national obsession if you will . . Hope to see BD have similar infrastructure in future

 

[damiendehorn]

It was 4.8 % this year and 5.2 % next year according to ADB. It will take alot of time for you to catch up with us because our infrastructure and logistics is already developed and we are ahead by like 10-15 years in that department. To top that once CPEC takes off in a year time it will be a game changer.

We are building the costliest 6 lane 1500 Km expressway in the world. That will bring our total lengh of expressways to 2700 - 3000 km.

The good news is India , Pakistan and BD are developing at a fast rate.

Well time will tell, lets come back in say 2-3 years and see who has a higher per capita income and who has a higher GDP growth rate Bangladesh or pakistan.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

@Khan_21 ,@TopCat check out this news.Pakistani govt. is creating a huge imbalance between Lahore Islamabad and the rest of the country.
Lahore gets lion’s share of Punjab development budget

04-Aug-16

LAHORE: More than half of the Punjab’s district based development budget has gone only to the provincial capital, as revealed by a detailed analysis of this year’s budget document.

A review of the two volumes of the provincial budget document “Demands for Grants” for fiscal year 2016-17 showed that around 58 per cent of the total allocated amount for development schemes had been reserved for Lahore alone, while no other district could get more than 3 per cent share.

According to the said documents, at least Rs 134 billion had been allocated for 445 schemes of Lahore out of a total district based allocation of Rs 229 billion. The second highest allocation for the development schemes went to the southern Punjab’s largest Multan which got only 3 per cent share with Rs 8.2 billion.

Another larger district of the province Faisalabad received a mere 2.7 per cent share in the district-based development schemes with Rs 6.2 million and Rawalpindi got 2.97 per cent with Rs 6.8 billion development budget.

Attock’s got 1.03 per cent, Bahawalnagar 1.09 per cent, Bahawalpur 2.72 per cent, Bhakkar, 0.5 per cent, Dera Ghazi Khan, 1.49 per cent, Liyyah 0.83 per cent, Muzaffargarh, 1.47 per cent, Toba Tek Singh 0.21 per cent, Vehari 1.01 per cent, Rajanpur 0.72 per cent and Rahim Yar Khan 1.01 per cent.

Under Lahore based project, major allocations had been made for Orange Line Metro Train Project which cost Rs 85 billion earmarked for this year. An additional amount of Rs 1.99 billion had been allocated for the provision of sewerage system for UC-117, 118 & 120 in the provincial capital.

Sewerage system from Larex Colony to Gulshan-e-Ravi Lahore would cost Rs1.3 billion, while an amount of Rs5 billion had been given as loans for the Lahore Waste Management Company for its capital, operational and head office expenditures.

Pakistan Kidney Liver Institute (PKLI) Lahore will cost Rs4 billion on provincial exchequer. Other mega projects include Punjab Police Integrated Command, Control & Communication (PPIC3) Centre Lahore with Rs2.9 billion allocation, Punjab Police Integrated Command Control & Communication Center Lahore (Safe City Project Lahore) with Rs10.63 billion and Lahore Knowledge Park with Rs2 billion funding.

The Punjab district profile had been extracted by the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) from the budget document uploaded on the official website of finance department of Punjab. According to Programme Manager at CPDI Raja Shoaib Akbar, the data for all the districts of both provinces has been extracted by searching for the district names in the large budget books titled “Demand for Grant”-Development.

He said that there might be a few instances where the district name was not mentioned in the budget book and that project might have not been included in the analysis. While contacted, Punjab acting secretary information Raja Jahangir said that the provincial government was not discriminating against any district and the funds had been allocated in proportion with the population of districts.

He said that some projects based in Lahore were beneficial for the entire province like universities and Tertiary Care Hospitals. He claimed that in the annual development plan of the province, southern Punjab had been given 32 per cent share while its population is 31 per cent of the total number of people living in the province.

Punjab Secretary Planning and Development Iftikhar Sahu said that he doubted the accuracy of figures and said that there was no document that contained details of district wise allocation separately. He added, “Lahore gets major allocations because the provincial capital has the infrastructure and human capacity to sustain major projects.”

 

[Mage]

Our current 6 lane highway's length is about 1000 km . We had our first 6 lane back in 1997 from Islamabad to Lahore . Nawaz sharif has a bit of obsession with building extensive roads . The roads you see in Lahore or Islamabad are some of the best you will see anywhere . Countless other Expressways are under construction . Call it his fetish . Wherever he goes he starts building roads , flyovers and expressways . If you happen to land in Islamabad or Lahore at times it gives the impression of being in a developed country . . Islamabad more because it is a planned and developed city with rarely a slum or poor in sight . I will give you some pictures of nawaz sharif's obsession with roads and expressways .

Lahore (He regularly wins his party elections from there ) .

Gulberg Avenue , Lahore

Islamabad - Lahore 400 KM Expressway

Peshawer - Islamabad 155 km Expressway

There are 4-5 further similar expressways with a combined length of 929 km . 1500 km further is under construction . Islamabad being a developed and planned city 8-10 lanes are quite common there .

And yes ofcourse these have cost billions of dollars . Call it a national obsession if you will . . Hope to see BD have similar infrastructure in future

Looks fantastic actually

My father studied in Lahore. I guess I'll show him these pics.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

Lahore takes all
Home / Today's Paper / Opinion / Lahore takes all
By Adnan Adil
July 17, 2016

Punjab is suffering under the burden of Lahore. While around 10 percent of the province’s 101 million people live in Lahore, 30-40 percent of the total provincial development budget is spent on the city each year.

The major beneficiaries of this policy are those with power and influence. The more the government spends on the city the higher go the city’s land prices. The victims are the residents of villages and small cities who lack access to even basic amenities of life.

For FY 2016-17, the Punjab government has presented a development outlay of Rs550 billion out of which at least Rs130 billion (or 24 percent of the total) has been allocated for projects in Lahore. Funds spent through a supplementary budget and block allocations, called ‘special initiatives,’ at the discretion of the chief minister will be in addition to this amount.

This preferential treatment for Punjab’s metropolis has assumed new heights during the last four years. The just approved Rs80 billion annual development budget of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) is the latest example.

In addition to the LDA’s own resources, the provincial government will provide more than Rs56 billion to the development authority for development works in the city this fiscal year – an amount that equals cumulative spending on the province’s health sector during the last six years.

Lahore’s importance can be seen from the LDA’s allocation of Rs280 million for further widening the road linking the canal to Raiwind Road. Just a few years ago, Rs400 million was spent on the same road’s widening and beautification.

Roads are being dug up, built and again excavated and built anew in a short span of time, leading to tens of billions spent from the public kitty while other districts are deprived of even paltry amounts for sewage, schools and health clinics.

In 2004-2008, Rs6 billion was spent for widening of Multan Road but last year the road was dug up to build the metro train. Now this year’s budget again allocates Rs2.3 billion for rehabilitating the same Multan Road as it stands excavated. Precious public money is being recklessly squandered with no financial accountability at any forum.

Just a cursory look at mega development works underway in Lahore as given in official budget documents is enough to see the way Lahore has eaten up the resources of the entire province, especially the southern districts.

Some main projects this year include: Rs85 billion for Lahore Orange Metro Train (Rs45 billion already spent last year), Rs1.7 billion for allied works and support services for the Orange Line project, Rs9.9 billion for WASA Lahore, Rs4 billion for the Kidney and Liver Institute and Rs11.3 billion for the Safe City Project.

Besides, the provincial government has planned two new bridges over River Ravi at a cost of Rs1.6 billion. In the last fiscal year, the government completed construction of a part of Lahore’s Ring Road at a cost of Rs30 billion. The government also set up a special police squad, Dolphins, for patrolling the city streets at a cost of Rs4 billion.

In each sector, Lahore’s supremacy is quite visible in budgetary allocations and actual spending both. For example, the development outlay for health sector for 2016-17 is Rs42.5 billion out of which Rs9 billion have been allocated for schemes in Lahore – 22 percent of the total.

Now each year, since the actual expenditure is much less than the original allocations, mostly schemes for the countryside are axed. In this way, the spending on the health sector in the provincial capital will shoot up to 30 to 40 percent of the total outlay. In contrast, the health projects in the rest of the province have been waiting for completion for years, some for the last 10 years – like the Cardiology Institute at Wazirabad.

As a result of this policy, the city’s population is burgeoning rapidly. Despite that the city roads have been widened for an umpteenth time and underpasses and flyovers built, they remain clogged with traffic. Pressure on the city land is so intense that real-estate prices have doubled during the last three years. Underground water fit for drinking has sunk from 200 to 800 feet over the last one decade.

The effect of neglecting the countryside is visible in the form of crumbled roads, sewage flowing on streets strewn with garbage and lack of education and health facilities. For middle-income people living in other cities and towns, there is no way left but to pack up and migrate to Lahore.

The members of the ruling elite are on a buying spree of agricultural lands in the vicinity of the city, which are being turned into housing societies. The agricultural land bought at throwaway prices becomes prime real-estate property with public funds pouring into the physical infrastructure. The city is now touching the frontiers of nearby small cities and towns including Kasur, Manga Mandi and Sharqpur.

Owing to massive building of incongruous physical infrastructure like flyovers, underpasses and metro train and metro bus – both metros have divided a large part of the city into two halves and wrapped the traditional view of the city – Lahore is losing its historical character and ambience. Thousands of trees along the city roads have been cut to make way for expressways.

Due to the deeply-entrenched vested interest of a coterie of people in power and business public funds are heavily invested in Lahore’s development. Unless authority is decentralised and public spending in all the regions is rationalised through some sort of institutional arrangement, the rest of Punjab will remain deprived and backward.

Email: adnanadilzaidi@gmail.com
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/135475-Lahore-takes-all

 

[KediKesenFare3]

 

[Khan_21]

@Khan_21 ,@TopCat check out this news.Pakistani govt. is creating a huge imbalance between Lahore Islamabad and the rest of the country.
Lahore gets lion’s share of Punjab development budget

04-Aug-16

LAHORE: More than half of the Punjab’s district based development budget has gone only to the provincial capital, as revealed by a detailed analysis of this year’s budget document.

A review of the two volumes of the provincial budget document “Demands for Grants” for fiscal year 2016-17 showed that around 58 per cent of the total allocated amount for development schemes had been reserved for Lahore alone, while no other district could get more than 3 per cent share.

According to the said documents, at least Rs 134 billion had been allocated for 445 schemes of Lahore out of a total district based allocation of Rs 229 billion. The second highest allocation for the development schemes went to the southern Punjab’s largest Multan which got only 3 per cent share with Rs 8.2 billion.

Another larger district of the province Faisalabad received a mere 2.7 per cent share in the district-based development schemes with Rs 6.2 million and Rawalpindi got 2.97 per cent with Rs 6.8 billion development budget.

Attock’s got 1.03 per cent, Bahawalnagar 1.09 per cent, Bahawalpur 2.72 per cent, Bhakkar, 0.5 per cent, Dera Ghazi Khan, 1.49 per cent, Liyyah 0.83 per cent, Muzaffargarh, 1.47 per cent, Toba Tek Singh 0.21 per cent, Vehari 1.01 per cent, Rajanpur 0.72 per cent and Rahim Yar Khan 1.01 per cent.

Under Lahore based project, major allocations had been made for Orange Line Metro Train Project which cost Rs 85 billion earmarked for this year. An additional amount of Rs 1.99 billion had been allocated for the provision of sewerage system for UC-117, 118 & 120 in the provincial capital.

Sewerage system from Larex Colony to Gulshan-e-Ravi Lahore would cost Rs1.3 billion, while an amount of Rs5 billion had been given as loans for the Lahore Waste Management Company for its capital, operational and head office expenditures.

Pakistan Kidney Liver Institute (PKLI) Lahore will cost Rs4 billion on provincial exchequer. Other mega projects include Punjab Police Integrated Command, Control & Communication (PPIC3) Centre Lahore with Rs2.9 billion allocation, Punjab Police Integrated Command Control & Communication Center Lahore (Safe City Project Lahore) with Rs10.63 billion and Lahore Knowledge Park with Rs2 billion funding.

The Punjab district profile had been extracted by the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) from the budget document uploaded on the official website of finance department of Punjab. According to Programme Manager at CPDI Raja Shoaib Akbar, the data for all the districts of both provinces has been extracted by searching for the district names in the large budget books titled “Demand for Grant”-Development.

He said that there might be a few instances where the district name was not mentioned in the budget book and that project might have not been included in the analysis. While contacted, Punjab acting secretary information Raja Jahangir said that the provincial government was not discriminating against any district and the funds had been allocated in proportion with the population of districts.

He said that some projects based in Lahore were beneficial for the entire province like universities and Tertiary Care Hospitals. He claimed that in the annual development plan of the province, southern Punjab had been given 32 per cent share while its population is 31 per cent of the total number of people living in the province.

Punjab Secretary Planning and Development Iftikhar Sahu said that he doubted the accuracy of figures and said that there was no document that contained details of district wise allocation separately. He added, “Lahore gets major allocations because the provincial capital has the infrastructure and human capacity to sustain major projects.”

Came back from Lahore 3 weeks back . Its a great city billions have been pumped in the development of the city . As for rest of Punjab well its the most developed province in the country with a High GDP per capita . In Pakistan everything is more decentralized than BD . Karachi is the economic engine , Punjab provides agriculture , Balochistan has the minerals , Islamabad is the diplomatic capital while Lahore is the cultural heart of the country.

In BD everything from A -Z has to be in Dhaka. Maybe that is why it is so congested? Whats the level of development in Chittagong or the rest of cities?. I always felt like Dhaka as getting all the burden . You should have a planned capital similar to ours.

Well time will tell, lets come back in say 2-3 years and see who has a higher per capita income and who has a higher GDP growth rate Bangladesh or pakistan.

Healthy competition between countries should always be there to improve .

 

[Homo Sapiens]

In BD everything from A -Z has to be in Dhaka. Maybe that is why it is so congested? Whats the level of development in Chittagong or the rest of cities?. I always felt like Dhaka as getting all the burden . You should have a planned capital similar to ours.

Living condition in Chittagong and Sylhet are better than Dhaka.We don't have huge regional gap like India,Pakistan still Chittagong is the richest area in Bangladesh as well as lowest poverty rate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Chittagong
Sylhet is the second richest within Bangladesh.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Sylhet

Road quality is better in Chittagong and Sylhet than Dhaka.I mean less pot-holed.Bangladesh govt. distribute development budget pretty fairly among the all the region.I find village road are in better condition than Dhaka's road except major one.