Shahbaz Sharif announces Punjab Growth Strategy 2018

Lahore: Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif while announcing Punjab Growth Strategy 2018 has said that the target of eight percent increase in the development growth will be achieved in Punjab by 2018 and the volume of economy of the province will be enhanced. He said that 40 lakh new quality job opportunities will be created.

He expressed these views while addressing the inaugural function of Punjab Growth Strategy 2018 at Chief Minister’s office, here today.

Federal Minister for Planning & Development Ahsan Iqbal, Provincial Finance Minister Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman, Advisor Economic Affairs Dr. Ijaz Nabi, representatives of UNICEF, DFID and other donor agencies also addressed the function. Chairman Planning & Development Irfan Elahi threw light in detail on various features of Punjab Growth Strategy 2018.

Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif said that today is the very important day in the history of Punjab as we have gathered to discuss the development strategy of the province. He said that the team of Planning & Development Department in consultation with economic experts has evolved best development strategy. However, achievement of development goals is useless without planning of provision of education, health, potable water and other basic facilities to the common man of the society, he added.

The Chief Minister said that 20 lakh youth will be imparted training of various skills according to market needs in the province. He said that 15 percent increase will be made in the exports of Punjab every year whereas target of 17.5 billion dollars investment by private sector has been fixed in Punjab up to 2018. He said that the devised development strategy would be fully implemented and every effort will be made for achieving the fixed development goals.

The Chief Minister said that besides planning regarding energy sector, increasing exports and manufacturing sector, planning for equipping every child of the country with education will also have to be made. He said that economic experts should extend cooperation in formulating such a policy which has the guidance about the development of youth comprising 60 percent population of the country, women and minorities and they could be empowered in the real sense. He said that Pakistan is a lucky country as its more than 60 percent population comprises youth.

He said that we have to make planning for changing the challenge of youth into opportunity and evolve an effective strategy for empowering them. Shahbaz Sharif said that all planning will be meaningless without providing job opportunities and empowering the youth. He said that we have to meet this challenge collectively and if we will succeed to change this challenge into opportunity, the destiny of the province and the country can be changed and this should be the important feature of our growth strategy. He said that Punjab government has taken effective steps in this regard and thousands of girls and boys have been made skillful under skill development programme with the collaboration of DFID.

The Chief Minister said that reforms of revolutionary nature are also being introduced in education and health sectors. He said that one lakh such talented students are getting education through the biggest educational fund of the history of the country whose parents do not have resources for equipping their children with education. He said that former federal governments started clean drinking water project and there were flaws and corruption in it, due to which, we have to close this project.

Shahbaz Sharif said that present government has started Saaf Pani Project for providing potable water to the people of the province for which a survey has been carried out under the supervision of experts throughout the province and in the light of which this project is being forwarded. He said that democracy is the name of provision of services to the masses. He said that the demands of democracy cannot be fulfilled without providing indiscriminate social justice, education, health, jobs and other basic facilities to the common man. He said that Punjab government is successfully forwarding the mission of service to the masses and provision of quality facilities to them.

The Chief Minister said that number of countries which were lagged behind us in development have made tremendous development. He said that South Korea has achieved development goals by implementing blue-print of five years development plan of Pakistan. He said that China which got freedom after Pakistan has now become the second big economic power of the world. He said that we are thankful to China which has helped us in this hour of trial and given historic economic package of 46 billion dollars for the development of Pakistan, out of which, more than 30 billion dollars are for energy sector.

Shahbaz Sharif said that China has made magnificent development through hard work, struggle and untiring efforts and its foreign exchange reserves are near four trillion dollars whereas we are still facing problems like terrorism, energy crisis, corruption, nepotism and plunder. He said that Pakistan is an agrarian country and is the fourth largest milk producing country of the world but despite it, we have failed to achieve the desired results in agriculture and livestock sectors. He said that Pakistan is a green basket for Middle East but we could not benefit from it and lack of planning is its basic reason.

The Chief Minister said that after elections 2013, Punjab government is working on a development strategy. He said that untimely sit-ins and protest politics stopped development journey and created unnecessary delay in development projects. However, Punjab government has formulated development strategy 2018 upon which Dr. Ijaz Nabi, Chairman Planning & Development and his team deserve appreciation. He said that we have to take steps for benefiting from the abilities of youth and make it an important feature of our development strategy.