Govt to only finance important projects for provinces: SIFC

• PSDP listed projects to be presented before CCER for review.
• Finance minister to chair CCER meeting upon return from Morocco.
• "Exercise to abandon provincial projects underway," top official says.

ISLAMABAD: The Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) has decided to only finance extremely important development projects in the provinces with 50% of funds allocated by the federal government and provinces each, The News reported.

The Planning Ministry has, meanwhile, identified all the Public Sector Development Programmes (PSDP) listed projects to be presented before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Revival (CCER) with its aims to scrap all such schemes and save Rs314 billion under the austerity drive.

Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar, following her return from Morocco where she is attending the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), will be chairing the CCER meeting.

"The exercise to abandon the provincial nature projects from PSDP list is underway,” a top government official said on Thursday.

It was decided in the last SIFC’s Apex Committee meeting that development projects of provincial nature would only be executed in the future through the cost-sharing of 50%:50% of funds borne by both the Centre and provinces. “If the provincial government does not bear 50% cost on an equal basis, the Centre will not provide its share of funding,” another top official source confirmed while talking to The News.

One senior official said the decision had already been taken up by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC). The SIFC’s Executive Committee is scheduled to meet early next week to undertake all spadework for tabling it before the apex committee under the chairmanship of Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar in the coming weeks.

So far, the SIFC has remained unable to finalise much-awaited multi-billion dollar transactions for attracting investments but it is making all-out efforts to lure foreign investors in areas of mining, IT, agriculture, and others.

One of the future SIFC agendas for considering mechanisms for corporate farming lies on the table. Although some initial work was done during the tenure of late Gen (retd) Musharraf, still there is a need to undertake its basic framework in a detailed manner before striking pacts with international investors. However, it is critical to hire technical experts for drafting international agreements and steering the negotiations against the backdrop of several past agreements ending up in disputes due to a lack of technical capacity.

Meanwhile, different ministries/divisions have been directed to undertake steps under the austerity plans to ensure savings. The Ministry of Finance instructed all its wings and attached departments to review all the foreign visits and banned all those deemed necessary next week.