Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Thursday here said the focus of his government was the projects of public welfare and for implementation of these projects clear and comprehensive policies were adopted during the last 15 months.
He was chairing a meeting to review performance of the government in achieving the set targets set.
During a detailed briefing given to him, he was told that revenues of the government increased by 16 percent while the number of active taxpayers rose by 1.3 million. Under the Benazir Income Support Programme, the government provided assistance to additional nine million families while the power sector recovered 94 percent of its billed amount. Due to special interest of the prime minister, the exports of information technology sector increased substantially in the last four months. It was informed that in the last financial year, the IT sector exports rose to 2.6 billion dollars because of the government policies and measures. The foreign investment in the last fiscal was recorded at 1.45 billion dollars. While the establishment of Special Investment Facilitation Council would lead to considerable boost in foreign investments. It was told that 99 percent of the targets set under the historic Rs 1.8 trillion Kissan package for assistance and facilitation of farmers were achieved. Shehbaz Sharif said the government’s measures saved the economy from default and put the economy on the path of stability.
The incoming caretaker government and the next elected government would benefit from the institutional reforms of the present government, he said and hoped that these governments would continue to pursue the current vision.He stressed the need for a comprehensive system of inter-ministerial resolution of problems and cooperation. The prime minister said he was leaving behind the legacy of “whole of the government approach” – a critical element for economic progress of the country. He thanked the ministers, development partners and government officers for their cooperation.
Federal ministers Ishaq Dar, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Syed Naveed Qamar, Tariq Bashir Cheema, Engineer Khurram Dastgir, Abid Hussain Bhaio, Special Assistants Tariq Bajwa, Jehanzeb Khan, Chairman FBR and high ranking officers attended the meeting. Sir Michael Barber especially attended the meeting from Britain through video link. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday launched a Digital Youth Hub portal to provide integrated and one-stop guidance on the youth-related initiatives launched by the government. In his address, the prime minister congratulated the youth on the launch of facility and assured that the government was expanding Youth Program across the country as laptops and business loans were being disbursed across the country.
He told the gathering that Rs 30 billion had already been disbursed by the banks to youth in form of business loans. He said Rs 80 billion had been specified for youth-related initiatives including IT programs, freelancing, IT incubators and others, besides another Rs 5 billion allocated for sports projects. The prime minister said he had replicated his idea of an Endowment Fund at the federal level as an Education Endowment Fund had been set up with Rs 5 billion funding. He said that the facilities like laptops and other funding initiatives were only meant for the high achievers of the public sector universities. The prime minister asked the youngsters to register themselves at the portal to avail the available facilities. The prime minister thanked SAPM Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Lt General Senator Abdul Qayyum, vice-chancellors and members of the Youth Parliament for their efforts to uplift youth.
