Iqbal for monitoring economic activities

Asks IT ministry to develop dashboard for the purpose

ISLAMABAD:

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal has told the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and the Ministry of Information Technology to develop a dashboard to monitor daily activities in the economy of the country.

“The dashboard will also help promote innovative projects of national importance under the Innovation Support Fund (ISF), which will be launched soon,” said Iqbal. Chairing a meeting for the development of the National Integrated Dashboard and the launch of ISF on Tuesday, the minister said that there was no integrated dashboard where economic management could be monitored, particularly by the key ministries like finance.

He told the ministries concerned and PBS to develop a dashboard so that economic situation could be monitored on a daily basis, which would help the policymakers in formulating the policy. He stressed that data was the key in the current era and there should be a dashboard at two levels – one for the top leadership and the other for the secretary level, which would enable every ministry to monitor the economic indicators.