Policy statement: Finance minister says facilitating investors a top priority

LAHORE:

Facilitation of investors is the top priority of the provincial government. It is promoting public-private partnership ventures to draw local and foreign investors to the province.

These views were expressed by Finance Minister Ayesha Ghaus Pasha at a meeting of the Asian Development Bank’s Identification and Consultation Mission on Public-Private Partnership and Social Entrepreneurship.

The finance minister said the government planned to start several public welfare projects in partnership with private investors. She said through these projects the government would ensure provision of housing and public transport at affordable rates.

She said besides the Orange Line Metro Train, several flyovers at railway crossings and underpasses were being built in the city in collaboration with the private sector.

The finance minister said the Chief Minister’s Rural Roads Programme was another example of a public-private venture for the welfare of the people. She said under the project the provincial government was constructing and rehabilitating all farm to market roads in the province. She said the project would be completed in three years at a cost of Rs150 billion.

She said a third-party audit would be mandatory for all such projects to ensure transparency in use of funds.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2015.