K-P govt links ADP with strategic development strategy 2019-23

Likely to finalise strategy in on-going workshop today

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government is all set to finalise Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) at a workshop planned for Thursday (today), said a statement on Wednesday.

The workshop will see deliberations for linking the annual development plan (ADP) of the province with SDS encompassing the social and economic development, reducing poverty and providing better livelihood opportunities to people in the province.

The SDS will guide public investment decisions till the year 2023.

Experts from government and private sectors in nine thematic areas have completed deliberations on SDS in series of sessions for the last three months. The recommendations will be discussed further in open forum with broader participation of people from all walks of life in the presence of political leadership of the sitting provincial government in today’s workshop to lay a hand on the strategy.

Chief Secretary Salim Khan will chair the morning session and senior minister and ministers for finance, agriculture, education and health will lead the Technical Advisory Groups presentations in the second session of the workshop. The K-P Planning & Development Department with the technical support of Governance and Policy Project is leading the formulation of SDS.

It is pertinent to mention that the 10-Year Development Plan prepared for the erstwhile Fata will be an integral part of the SDS besides, a key strategic drift in merging ex-tribal areas into K-P through the 25th Constitutional Amendment.

K-P government developed an Integrated Development Strategy (IDS) in 2014 as a medium term development plan which ended in June 2018. Therefore, to continue with the socio economic development of the province, a new development framework was needed.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2019.