Balochistan sweetens terms for investment

Province can be made self-sufficient by developing mining sector, says secretary finance

QUETTA: The Balochistan government has revived the provincial Investment Board to attract investments for different projects in the province and to provide incentives to potential investors with the facility to take their profits back to their home provinces.

This was stated by Finance  Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani during a pre-budget seminar in Quetta on Thursday in which officials briefed the ministers and MPAs on different aspects of the proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

The main purpose of the pre-budget seminar is to provide background briefing under which the provincial budget will be prepared and presented before the provincial assembly for approval.



The finance secretary was of the view that the province of Balochistan can be made self-sufficient by promoting and developing the mining sector which has great potential for development. He said that the government is implementing a plan for public-private partnership in Planning and Development Department of the provincial government.

Durrani, who conducted the main briefing, emphasised the need to increase the revenue of the province to make funds available for future economic development. He made a specific reference to National Finance Commission Award in which the demand of Balochistan government to increase the allocation of funds, by including poverty and backwardness as two additional factors, was approved.



Durrani informed the participants that the federal government is making a sizable contribution by introducing a number of development schemes under its federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). He said the provincial government has already collected Rs2 billion through the Balochistan Revenue Authority.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2016.