My only concern is transparency regarding CPEC and the fact that it should have impact on those areas of Pakistan (Baluchistan, FATA, KPK) which sorely need it. I do not wish to engage in useless tit-for-tat comments with anyone.
There are 3 Route if you believe or Not we all be happy it this goes through Balochistan And KPK more then you will be i was just trying to tell you that there were many parties which were raising the same issue that Punjab is changing the route of it and Meeting with Ahsan Iqbal said there is no route change in CPEC it has 3 routes passing from all provinces after that this map came out
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All Political Parties support CPEC
“The government is committed to ensure united and strong Pakistan through shared prosperity and inclusive development
We are double concerned about backward areas of Pakistan and China Pakistan Economic Corridor CPEC shall bring dividends to all the provinces and regions of Pakistan”, said the Federal Minister for Planning and Development Prof Ahsan Iqbal while chairing a meeting with leaders of political parties and Parliamentarians on CPEC today.
Commenting on the western road alignment for CPEC, he said, “Gawadar will serve multiple destinations and markets and comprises of multiple routes. The impression that western route has been ignored is not correct. Rather work is under way on this route to complete the 400km missing link between Gawadar and Surab to pass through Quetta, Zhob, DIK and Peshawar. The FWO is working on Gawadar-Sorab alignment for the last eight months despite security issues. The confusions on the change of route alignment have surfaced due to miscommunication and there is no any change in the original route alignment of CPEC. The western route is being done by our own resources and it will be ready before other routes”.
NHA Chairman further clarified facts on the road connectivity of around 200km from Zhob to DIK via Mughalkot. He assured that 124km road connectivity from Zhob to Mughalkot will be started within next four months which will connect Gawadar in the north towards the province of KPK. The technical feasibility is underway on the road connectivity from Mughalkot to DIK.
While acknowledging sacrifices of KPK province in the war against terror Minister said, “Prime Minister will announce special package for KPK soon. The current financial year has approved higher education projects of Kohat, […]
All provinces and regions will benefit from CPEC
“The opponents of fate changer project like China Pakistan Economic Corridor CPEC are the enemies of Pakistan. CPEC is the portfolio of $45 billion which is based on the visionary leadership of China and Pakistan desiring to see Asia as the center of global economy in 21st century”, said Prof Ahsan Iqbal while addressing the roundtable on China Pakistan economic Corridor in National Defense University today.
“Social solidarity and political stability have enabled China to make progress in economic development. We have to learn from Chinese learning and development experience and stop politicizing mega development projects through hatred breeding political statements. Those who are hatching repeated conspiracy against CPEC are the anarchists, masquerading under the garb of patriotism. It’s high time we throw overboard our parochial, sectarian and racial differences to see prosperous future of Pakistan for our youth bulge”, he said.
“CPEC will help increasing our growth rate to around 8% and will prove decisive in shaping new Pakistan. Under the umbrella of this corridor project the remote and backward areas of Gawadar and Thar will be made economic centers in future. Gawadar will become port city having tourist and business opportunities like Singapore and Dubai. Thar will produce power of 6000mw in the next 10 years. The atmosphere of peace and social cohesion will work as oxygen for execution of CPEC”, he remarked.
The Federal Minister announced that government has approved special security force of around 10000 personnel for Chinese working in Pakistan to address security concerns. The land at Gawadar for free economic zone has already been made available.
“We have already trodden the journey to political and constitutional democracy since 2008, now CPEC will establish economic aspect of democracy in Pakistan by providing employment […]
Federal Minister for Planning and Development Prof Ahsan Iqbal chairing a meeting on PSDP 2014-15
Chairing the meeting with secretaries and senior level officials of Ministries and other project executing agencies on public sector development programs today the Federal Minister for Planning and development Prof Ahsan Iqbal directed them to expedite the spending of allocated money for prompt execution of projects before the end of current financial year 2014-15.
He said, “The government is committed to overcome energy crisis by 2017-18 and ensure conducive and enabling environment to attract foreign direct investment through execution of energy and infrastructure projects”. He directed NHA to expedite the work on M-8 and N-85 to ensure their timely completion by June 2016 in order to connect Gawadar with Quetta.
While directing officials the Federal Minister said, “The next financial year 2015-16 will include the projects of high impact in the PSDP having closer conformity with economic and development oriented strategy as envisaged in vision 2025”
He said, ” Ministries must ensure utilization of psdp with results and better project management practices should be adopted to eliminate waste and inefficiency. Performance of Ministries on psdp allocation utilization during current financial year 2014-15 will be a criteria for next year allocations”.
Earlier today, the Federal Minister encouraged new slot of young development fellows YDF in the Planning Commission to come up with innovative ideas and realize them in to tangible outcome through projects of high impact on socio-economic development of the country. He assured YDF to incorporate the projects of high impact on youth in the next PSDP budget 2015-16. He showed personal interest in the evaluation of young development fellows and directed them to come up with their short, medium and long term objectives and KPIs in their respective assignments. “The evaluation mechanism of YDF will incentivize the […]
Ahsan Iqbal clarified confusions on CPEC
Addressing at the launching ceremony of China Pakistan Economic Corridor Council today the Federal Minister for planning and Development Prof. Ahsan Iqbal clarified all the misplaced notions regarding the corridor project. He said, “China Pakistan Economic Corridor is not any single road or rail alignment or that it is aimed at competing with other ports. It is the umbrella project spreading over entire Pakistan from south to north having several projects on energy, infrastructure, health, education, clean drinking water etc. It will be developed due to its own unique geographical location and will complement other ports within and outside Pakistan through existing regional infrastructure. The government is not borrowing loan from China or other donor agency for this project; it is rather Chinese companies which are investing in Pakistan as FDI.
The Federal Minister interlinked geo-political and strategic relations with geo-economic relations. He said, “A new paradigm in Pak-China relations, focusing on economic growth and development, is the primary objective of our economic agenda which is being derailed repeatedly by some forces either by dharna politics or through press statements after seeing erroneous maps on social media on corridor project. Despite repeated conspiracy, we are committed to create a new milestone in our bilateral relations with China by moving forward on corridor project envisaging 45 billion $ investment. PM Nawaz Sharif’s first visit to China in July 2013 also marked a new phase in the relationship by putting economic cooperation and connectivity squarely at the centre of the bilateral agenda.”
The official visit of Chinese president to Pakistan will mark the beginning of new geo-economic relations between both countries with the signing of multiple projects on energy […]
Federal Minister directs to expedite completion of key Energy and Infrastructure projects
The Federal Minister gave a deadline of June 30, 2015 to Wapda to finish 400 km long phase I of Kachi Canal Project. He assured to release Rs. 7 billion soon for this project and directed Wapda to keep in touch with law enforcement agencies and administration in Balochistan to ensure security measures. The Federal Minister will also take the matter at political level in Balochistan.
The total length of Kachi Canal Project is 500 km starting from Tounsa Barrage in Punjab and ends at Dera Bughti in Balochistan and will be completed in next two phases. 102000 acres of land will be irrigated by phase I of the project while the total area of land under irrigation by this project will be 713000 acres. “With the completion of this project, an era of prosperity will usher for Balochistan”, the Minister added.
The Federal Minister for Planning and Development Prof Ahsan Iqbal chaired a meeting on Munda Dam which was attended by chairman wapda and Nespak. Speaking to the chairman of wapda he said, “The work on Munda dam project of 800 mw hydropower was the victim of wrong flood estimates. Wapda should take action against those who are responsible. Technical design should be completed at the earliest”
“All the approaching link roads of 13.5 km length starting from Golra Mor and crossing through G.T road, zero point and leading to New International Islamabad Airport should be completed by November this year”, he directed chairman NHA while chairing the meeting on overview of infrastructure development of projects earlier today.
He further directed NHA to expedite the work on M-8 and N-85 to ensure their timely completion by June 2016. “Both of these sections of highways should be completed […]
CDWP Meeting approved twenty one projects of Rs. 52524 million and recommended five projects of Rs. 223039 million to ECNEC
CDWP Meeting discussed thirty public sector development projects of Rs. Approximately 300000 million today under the chair of Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Prof. Ahsan Iqbal.
The Federal Minister directed all the project executing agencies to focus on the impact of project on social environs including people and their problems. He stressed on cost rationalization of the projects and said, “Public funds, earmarked for development, ought to be spent transparently to create highest value as we are answerable to the people of Pakistan”. He directed representatives of Railways to run railway stations on business model.
He said, “It is the commitment of Prime Minister to overcome energy crisis in next three years. Development projects reflect priority to energy sector through knowledge initiatives. In the last two years, record numbers of higher education projects have been approved and funded showing commitment of the government to higher education and youth”.
The detail of some approved projects is as under:
Higher Education
The project of
Dentistry School, SZAB Medical University Islamabad cost Rs. 1346 million and will be completed in three years. This school will be established within PIMS adjacent to the Burn Center through link corridors. It will provide quality dental health care services to public. It will also emphasize on research in the relevant field and will be a focal point for training of all cadres of dental health professionals. SZAB Medical University will be its executing agency.
The project of
Providing Academic and Allied Facilities to University of Swabi envisages construction of two academic blocks, one administration block and cafeteria on newly acquired land by the University to facilitate 2300 students of 11 departments. This project cost Rs. 1106 million which will be completed in 4 years. HEC […]
Our future rests on effective Water Management Strategy
Chairing the conference on Water and Sustainable Development in Islamabad today, the Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Prof. Ahsan Iqbal said, “Water is the fundamental right of every human being and Pakistan has become a water scarce country and we need to focus on water conservation and efficiency and the life of Prophet Muhammad teaches us a lesson of water conservation”. The theme of conference was to harness the potential role of youth in sustainable development through addressing water related issues and finding corrective measures.
Highlighting the role of youth in sustainable development of the country he said, “The Initiative of Young Development Fellow YDF at Planning Commission is one of the steps towards engaging young professionals to multifaceted issues like water conservation & management, climate change, IT based paperless governance etc. These young fellows are trained with new skills and assigned the task of improving the service delivery in public sector. The YDF initiative demonstrates that young professionals are returning something to country”.
“Planning Commission is focusing on social entrepreneurship incubator to be run on public-private partnership model. It will facilitate and encourage the young entrepreneurs to solve socio-economic problems by providing them support, encouragement, tools and access towards contributing sustainability in national economic development”, he added.
Acknowledging multi-dimensional importance of water in an agrarian society the Federal Minister said, “Water, Energy and Food Security are inextricably linked in vision 2025 document and the government is committed to frame a National Water Management Strategy to cope with issues of climate change and water scarcity. Despite having the best irrigation system and being an agrarian economy, we are still struggling against water related issues at home and at regional level. The eras of non-planning has […]
Reform is key to our progress and development
The workshop on Innovation and Reforms in the Government for Higher Performance was jointly organized by Planning Commission and UNDP in Islamabad which was chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Prof. Ahsan Iqbal. Earlier this month an agreement between them on four year project relating to governance reforms was reached.
The Federal Minister expressed hope on the results of such transformational project having high impact on growth and development of the country and ensured that the initiative will primarily focus on the software of governance and reform process by strengthening Planning Commission as a public sector think tank in the post 18th amendment scenario.
He called for review of the public sector organizations through strategic change management framework requiring responses of short, middle and long term nature in a politically stable environment. Acknowledging the importance of governance system of the country he said, “Best of the individual lot fail no matter how much efficient they remain, it is the governance system which has deep impact on the performance of public servants. 80% of the results in public sector organizations come from the governance system in place while individuals count only 20%”.
While highlighting the role of institutions in ensuring good governance, the Federal Minister proposed a new governance paradigm as “ICIC” (Institutional, Collaborative, Inclusive and Citizen focused). He singled out two foremost causes of poor performance in Pakistan to be the military takeovers and institutional malaise of the public sector organizations.
He stressed upon collective action on Vision 2025 by translating it into reality. “Vision document had the signature of all provincial governments which makes it collective national vision. It is high time to bring […]
Pakistan and China agree to start implementation of CPEC Early Harvest Projects by June of this year
The Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Sun Weidong called on the Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Prof. Ahsan Iqbal in which CPEC projects and the agenda of the upcoming Joint Cooperation Committee figured in. Both sides agreed to expedite the work on the Early Harvest projects which can be executed this year. They also exchanged the list of deliverables for the high level meeting between the two countries.
Joint Cooperation Committee meeting of the CPEC will take place in Beijing on March 24th & 25th, 2015. In the meeting both sides will deliberate and follow up on various projects including connectivity, information network infrastructure, energy cooperation, industries and industrial parks, agricultural development and poverty alleviation, tourism and infrastructure under CPEC for reaching maturation and agreement on implementation. Both sides reiterated their strong commitment to implement the consensus reached in the previous meetings of the JCC and Working Groups.
The Federal Minister emphasized to speed up the work specially on the energy projects as Pakistan is facing acute energy shortage. He identified coal and solar based energy projects of almost 4000 MW to be started on war footing. “The implementation of these projects will address the immediate pressing needs of energy in the country”, he stated.
He also underscored to reach financing agreement of Early Harvest Projects in the upcoming JCC meeting of CPEC. He said that CPEC have great strategic significance and financially beneficial for both countries. Both sides agreed to push forward the execution of the Early Harvest Projects as well as the preparation of the projects of the Long-term Plan in all sectors.
The Chinese ambassador agreed to speed up the work on the projects identified […]
There is a political will and a strong commitment at the top to reform the Civil Service Structure for changing the life of common people by better delivery service. Prof. Ahsan Iqbal
Chairing the consultative session on Civil Service Reform at the KPK Civil Secretariat, Federal Minister for Planning, Reform and Development Prof. Ahsan Iqbal said that no reform could succeed unless it had the buy-in of the stakeholders. He emphasized on providing better services to the common people by bringing a paradigm shift in the governance.
The meeting was held in continuity to the consultation process initiated by the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform on the direction of the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Such consultations have already taken place in Punjab whereas Sindh and Balochistan will also be approached soon to give their input for reforms in Public Sector.
“There is a political will and commitment from the top to bring change in the public sector for bringing change in the life of a common man” said the Federal Minister. “This is action-oriented exercise unlike the lip service paid in the past”. He said that the government is looking for quick steps which can immediately fix the practical problems confronting the governance in public sector.
He said that Reform is not the business of any single party or leader. He emphasized on collective action on Vision 2025 by translating it into reality. Vision document had the signature of all provincial governments which makes it collective national vision. “It is not just PML- N Vision but it is the vision of all the political parties which have endorsed it by signing off”, he said. It is high time to bring about the much talked about change in the Civil Service which is the third pillar of Vision 2025, he added.
Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal said that performance management and competitive system need to be […]
We are double concerned about backward areas of Pakistan and China Pakistan Economic Corridor CPEC shall bring dividends to all the provinces and regions of Pakistan”, said the Federal Minister for Planning and Development Prof Ahsan Iqbal while chairing a meeting with leaders of political parties and Parliamentarians on CPEC today.
