PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Thursday welcomed the $700 million loan by the World Bank to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He was talking to a team of World Bank here, said an official handout.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, MNAs Jahangir Tareen and Asad Umar, Minister for Higher and Secondary education Mohammad Atif and Peshawar District Nazim Muhammad Asim Khan were specially invited to the meeting.
KP Additional Chief Secretary Muhammad Azam Khan, who is also holding the charge of chief secretary, and other senior officials of the provincial government were also present.
The chief minister said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was a key to the development, prosperity and peace of the entire region. “The schemes initiated by the provincial government in communication network, industrialisation, tourism, investment and hydel power generation will provide a base for the development of the whole region,” he added.
The official statement said the World Bank officials agreed to support various initiatives of the KP government for human development, poverty eradication, employment opportunities, development of hydel power generation, tourism, agriculture, service delivery and public investments.
The agreement included World Bank Support for reducing poverty from the existing rate of 34 per cent to 20 per cent, increasing job opportunities from existing 72,000 to 270,000, reduction of gender parity gape, broadening tax and revenue base, and the capacity to utilise ADP.
With regard to the hydropower generation, KP has planned to generate 4,000 MW electricity but it requires around $1.2 billion and thus needed outside support.
Same is the case with tourism where it is endowed with 3/4th of the country’s tourism assets, hosting over 8.8 million tourists and generating around Rs.13 billion but the full capacity is mainly untapped.
This requires both short and long-term support to which the World Bank expressed full agreement.
About the rapid urbanisation in the province it was revealed that though 2/3rd of the province rural population is living within an hour travelling distance from the urban centres but its GDP per capita in cities is only half of urban Punjab and Sindh. Thus, its cities required integrated development and hence WB support.
It was revealed in the meeting that under such broad parameters, the KP government had already prepared numerous projects and thus the WB would support these projects wherever required.
The chief minister said the agreement for provision of financial support by the World Bank would considerably help the provincial government with schemes for human development, poverty reduction, job opportunities, hydel power generation, tourism and agriculture sectors.
The chief minister said his government was efficiently utilising its resources in different sectors under the definite aim to facilitate the people and ensure their welfare.
He said the KP government had devolved the power and authority to the grassroots level and had given 33 million to the local government system out of its ADP to strengthen the local government system.
The chief minister said the provincial government had already planned the commercialisation of public sector properties to enhance its resource base.
PTI Chairman Imran Khan said the merger of fata into Pakhtunkhwa was on the cards, adding the province had a lot of picturesque sites which could be harnessed for the development of tourism and this sector alone could support the country.
The WB country director appreciated the plan of provincial government and assured an extended programme for the province after the merger of Fata into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He assured that the bank would arrange and reimburse the resources if the provincial government continued working for the completion of the projects identified in the sectors to be financially supported by the World Bank.
