[Pakistan] Musharraf vows to use economic turnaround for poverty alleviation, sustainable socio-economic development of common man

From Online News Pakistan

RAWALPINDI: President General Pervez Musharraf Thursday reaffirmed his commitment for using Pakistan’s economic turnaround for poverty alleviation and sustainable socio-economic development of the common man.

Addressing a presentation on public sector development programme in Rawalpindi, which was also attended by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz; the president directed optimal utilization of all resources for visible improvement in the life of common man through initiation of development projects attended the presentation.

The President said we must utilize to sources available to bring a qualitative change in the lives of people and ensure wider distribution of economic benefits. He expressed the hope that the government would touch a growth rate of seven per cent this year.

He was informed that in view of economic growth and inflow of investment the country is expected to materialize one point five million job opportunities each year.

President Musharraf said: "the federal Government would act as a catalyst in facilitating the provinces for generation of more and more job opportunities." He said we must strive for creating additional employment opportunities during the next financial year and added that mega projects, local development schemes and micro finance banks would help create more job opportunities.

He said while mega projects like construction of water reservoirs would produce tremendous business activity and create jobs, we must also encourage self employment in both rural and urban areas to step up socio-economic development at local level. The President directed for speedy progress on provision of safe drinking water, cost-effective energy, better health and education facilities all over the country.

He said improvement in these sectors will reduce poverty and bring people of remote areas into the mainstream of national development. He stressed the importance of equipping the youth with technical skills.

For this purpose, he directed to allocate higher financial resources for technical and vocational sector from the overall budget of education. for improved health facilities, the President said the basic health units and local hospitals must be provided adequate medicine and other facilities.