PSDP likely to be Rs700bn in budget: Ahsan

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday said the volume of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) is likely up to Rs 700 billion in Budget (2022-23), which will increase more development opportunities in the country.

At the same time, he said, the efforts will be made to raise up to Rs 200 billion more through the public-private partnership, which will accelerate development projects. The minister expressed these views while addressing a press conference at the Press and Information Department (PID).

He said that in a total, 44 percent of the PSDP projects are provincial projects and the remaining 46 percent are federal projects. “We had taken PSDP to Rs1,000 billion during the previous tenure of PMLN government, however, former PTI-led government had brought it to Rs500 billion, which we wanted to take it to Rs2,000 billion,” he said.

He said the government would work mostly on youth issues, water scarcity and other issues, which are very important for the sustainable economic development of the country. The minister said there was no progress on the projects of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in the previous regime, adding that only a few of these projects started during our tenure.

He said the work on the nine Special Economic Zones (SEZs) of CPEC was to be completed by 2020 but not a single SEZ was completed by the PTI government. The planning minister said that Chinese industrial relocation was possible only with the completion of these nine CPEC SEZs, which did not happen.

He said the Chinese government was more interested in the Hattar Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project, but the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government decided to transfer the project to Rashakai SEZ. “Now the government is trying to include Hattar SEZ also,” he added.

He said the PMLN government strongly condemns the anti-Pakistan statement of former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan, adding that the security of the country is the first responsibility of the state, in which no negligence will be tolerated.

He said no one would be allowed to speak on other sensitive issues, including the country’s nuclear programme. He said that in the past, the government of PTI had led the country towards an economic crisis which the present government was trying to rectify.