Economy may improve by year-end, says Gilani
A meeting of federal ministers and senior finance ministry officials chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday was informed that the country’s financial position might improve by the end of the year because some friendly countries had indicated that they would provide funds for development projects.
The government had to cut its Public Sector Development Programme by 44 per cent to Rs250 billion from Rs446 billion—because of additional expenditures on security.
The meeting which reviewed the progress on development projects, expressed the hope that partial fulfilment of pledges made by the Friends of Democratic Pakistan might help in carrying out some major projects.
An official told Dawn that a final report on FoDP commitments would soon be submitted by the ministry of finance to the prime minister.
The meeting, attended by ministers for industries and production, ports and shipping and science and technology, minister of state for finance and economic affairs, State Bank Governor, chairman of the Board of Investment, Secretary Finance and chairman of the Board of Revenue, stressed the need for enhancing the capacity of provincial governments for timely utilisation of allocated funds.
It agreed that projects in underdeveloped areas needed to be given priority to bring them at par with other areas of the country.
According to an official handout, the meeting called for speeding up work on mega projects and early completion of the Gawadar-Ratodero road and Gawadar airport.
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