Energy and Tourism projects approved for Gilgit-Baltistan during National Economic Council meeting
Islamabad: (PR) Meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) was chaired by Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif via video link from High Commission for Pakistan, London today. All other members of the Council who attended the meeting were present in the Prime Minister Office, Islamabad.
The Prime Minister while approving all the agenda items of the meeting noted with satisfaction that the GDP in the current Financial Year remained 4.7 percent which is the highest GDP during the last eight years. The Prime Minister said that CPEC has the capacity for further contributing to GDP and will have far reaching effect in consolidating the economic outlook of the country in years ahead.
The meeting approved GDP growth target of 5.7 percent for Financial Year 2016-17 and Rs- 1675 billion National Development Outlay for Financial Year 2016-17 including Rs- 800 billion as Federal PSDP and Rs- 875 billion as Provincial Annual Development Program (ADP).
Growth target for 2016-17 has been set at 3.5 percent for agriculture sector, 7.7 percent for industry and 5.7 percent for the services sector. It was informed that significant attention has been given to the infrastructure development as it remained neglected during the last fifteen years.
The meeting was given an overview of the state of country’s economy in 2015-16 and approved macroeconomic framework for Annual Plan for 2016-17. The meeting was briefed on the progress report of CDWP as well as schemes approved by ECNEC & CDWP from April 2015 to March 2016.
The Prime Minister congratulated the Finance Minister, Planning Minister, Chief Ministers of the Provinces and Gilgit Baltistan and their respective teams at the federal and provincial levels for finalizing the development programme in harmony with the economic development of the country.
Chief Ministers of the provinces; Governor KP; CM Gilgit-Baltistan; Ministers for Finance, Planning and Water & Power; Finance Ministers of the provinces and ecretaries for Ministries for Finance and Planning attended the meeting along with other senior government officials.
