Tenth 5-year plan to focus on industrial development

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Sajid Chaudhry
ISLAMABAD: The focus of the 10th Five Year Plan 2010-15 is expected to be converting country’s economic growth base from agriculture to sound industrial bases in medium- and long-term, a senior official at Planning Commission told on Friday.

To overcome resource scarcity situation in the country, the 10th Five Year Plan would offer private sector investment opportunities under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode for infrastructure development as well as management and operations of the different projects of public service.

The plan would also stress for use of available infrastructure, as the financial health of the country is not able to go for huge investment in infrastructure development especially for health and education sectors.

The country would be able to achieve up to 4 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth with the promotion of agriculture alone, to achieve sustainable higher GDP growth of 6 percent or above would only be possible by converting country’s base from agriculture to industry, explained a senior official at Planning Commission.

Planning Commission has fixed the deadline of December 31 for finalizing consultative process for draft of the 10th Five Year Plan 2010-15.

Planning Commission has formed some 34 working groups to submit sectoral reports by November 15 for finalising initial draft of the plan, the official added. The official informed that these working groups for each sector of the economy have been mandated with clear Terms of Reference (TORs) to provide input in consultation with public and private sector stakeholders by November 15, 2009.

Each working group has also been empowered to form sub-groups to finalise its recommendations so that no aspect is ignored and input from all stakeholders and sub-sector is included in the initial draft, the official added.

By the start of the December 2009, each Chief at Planning Commission would arrange a detailed briefing for the central management of the Planning Commission as well as experts from the relevant fields who would also be invited to give their input, the official explained.

After having input from the experts, sectoral strategies would be finalised for incorporation in draft of the plan, the official further informed.

To propel growth, new sectors will be developed and harnessed. The government has initiated policies to reverse the neglect of agriculture and this improvement in the incentive structure has already shown good results. The tenth plan will build on this growth momentum to make agriculture and agro-business a leading sector of growth and development through vertical integration of high value agriculture and livestock products.

Industrial development will be stimulated by making Pakistani firms a part of global value chain by increasing their competitiveness and reducing the cost of doing business.

Modern services (banking, finance, communication) will be developed to enable the private sector to serve as a major driver of economic growth in the Tenth Plan (2010-15).

The widening skill gap, which is responsible for low productivity and lack of competitiveness, will be overcome by building state-of-the-art technical training institutes that produce world-class graduates and diploma-holders.

To achieve higher growth with employment generation for given levels of investment, the growth of small- and medium-sized industries needs to be accelerated. This would require the establishment of Common Facilities Centres (CFCs) that would enable small-scale industries to improve value-added production and quality control facilities.

Industrial competitiveness would be raised and the cost of doing business reduced by major improvements in infrastructure through the implementation of the National Trade Corridor Improvement Program (NTCIP) and overcoming the energy gap through an Integrated Energy Development Plan.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2009_pg5_1