Agenda for May 21 NEC meeting finalised

Hanif Khalid
ISLAMABAD: The agenda of the National Economic council (NEC) has been prepared for its presentation in the NEC session to be chaired by Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on May 21.

The chief ministers of four provinces as well as Gilgit-Baltistan, the prime minister of Azad Kashmir, federal ministers and secretaries, provincial finance ministers and secretaries for development, the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, the chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue, the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and other senior officials will attend the meeting.

According to the agenda, the NEC meeting would approve the Economic Growth Framework, which includes increase in the growth rate from six to eight per cent. One item on the agenda is review of the implementation of the development programme for 2010-11. The second item would be proposal of Rs280 billion annual development programme for new financial year while the total annual development programme including the provincial programme would come close to Rs725 billion.

The third agenda item would be the growth of economic statistics. The gross domestic produce (GDP) growth rate for the current fiscal year would be 2.4 per cent while the GDP growth rate for the new financial year would be fixed between four and five per cent.

Under the Economic Growth Framework, maximum job opportunities would be created for the youth and the youth would get unemployment when the GDP growth rate is increased from 2.4 per cent to 6-8 per cent and is sustained at this level.