—– Discusses 12-point agenda in great detail
—– Grants approval to amend laws relating to the Board of Investment
—– Approves National Adaptation Plan to boost Climate resilience
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the federal cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reviewed overall political and economic situation in the coun-try on Wednesday.
The cabinet discussed 12-point agenda in detail and granted approval to amend laws relating to the Board of Investment (BoI). The cabinet also ap-proved merger of Special Investment Facilitation Council with the BoI.
However, the National Hemp Policy could not be approved during the cabinet meeting.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the government had estab-lished a robust mechanism in form of the Special Investment Facilitation Council to attract investments with a view to do away with the “addiction” of borrowings and put the country on the course towards self-sustainability.
The prime minister, addressing the participants of the third meeting of Interna-tional Partners Support Group (IPSG), said the government had chalked out an economic revival plan. Its implementation would require foreign investment and technical support from the friendly countries to enhance per acre yield of wheat, sugarcane and other commodities and focus on other areas of action. He thanked the member countries and organsiations for supporting Pakistan amidst the difficult time of unprecedented floods and told them the people still awaited return to their homes as they lacked funding to rebuild the destroyed houses.
This shows the severity of the challenge which required untiring efforts by the government, friendly countries and the international partners to help Pakistan build climate resilient infrastructure. The prime minister thanked and appreciated the federal ministers for planning, climate change, finance, economic affairs and foreign affairs and their teams for reaching out to the international community and organise Geneva Confer-ence and where international commitment were made.
He told the participants that the country had been facing economic challenges like international inflation in terms of crude oil and commodities prices.
He said as the government had reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it would strictly abide by it without any deviation.
He said his government’s term was about to end by the next month, the up-coming interim government would also surely be adhering to the IMF deal as the first tranche had already been received.
He thanked the friendly countries and IMF Managing Director for helping Paki-stan to reach the $3billion agreement for a nine-month period.
He said the SIFC would focus on promotion of agriculture sector and introduc-tion of value added products which would obviously require an infrastructure to be built from the investment from Gulf nations, America, North America or any other country desiring to invest.
Besides, the Council would also help promote the IT and mining sector as the country was rich with immense potential in both sectors.
Prime Minister Shehbaz assured the meeting that every penny coming from the donors for the rehabilitation of the flood victims would be spent transpar-ently.
He directed the relevant authorities that transparency should be given key im-portance in the rehabilitation and reconstruction projects of flood affected are-as. Third party validation should be ensured in every project, he directed.
In the meeting, progress on flood recovery in Pakistan was reviewed. The prime minister appreciated the important role of IPSG in increasing coopera-tion as well as for climate resilience projects.
It was told that $657.5 million were estimated to be received by June 30, 2023 under the pledges made for various projects during the Climate Resilient Pa-kistan Conference, while $715 million have been received from donors and friendly countries for these projects. During the current year 2023-24, around $913.5 million will be spent on construction and rehabilitation projects in flood affected areas under the donors support.
The meeting was further informed that 19 projects have been designed for flood prevention and rehabilitation of victims, including eight for Sindh, seven for Balochistan, three for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one for the whole of Paki-stan.
The meeting was told that 64 percent of the money received for relief work was being spent in Sindh.
It was told that $16.2 billion was estimated for reconstruction under the 4-RF (4RF), of which $8.15 billion are being funded by the federal and provincial governments through PSDP and ADP, while the matching amount will be pro-vided by friendly countries and international organizations.
On this occasion, UNDP Resident Coordinator Samuel Rizk said that one year had passed since the disastrous floods in Pakistan and the presence of all partners to review the progress of the rehabilitation works was welcoming.
He said the rehabilitation of flood affected areas was possible only with the cooperation of all partners and UNDP would continue to play its full role in this regard as the Secretariat of the International Partner Support Group.
Federal ministers Ishaq Dar, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Sherry Rehman, Minister of State Hina Rabbani Khar, Special assistants Tariq Fatemi and Tariq Bajwa, representatives of UNDP, World Bank, European Union, ADB, IMF, USAID, and diplomats from America, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, China, Canada, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Azerbaijan, Italy and Norway, and other relevant high officials participated in the meeting.
Moreover, The federal cabinet on Wednesday approved the National Adaptation Plan 2023 which is aimed at protecting communities that are vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change.
The cabinet approved the plan on the recommendation of the Ministry of Cli-mate Change.
An official handout from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said that under the plan, the government, along with other stakeholders, would take measures to protect vulnerable communities from the adverse effects of climate change.
These steps would include early warning systems and effective measure to cope with emergency situations, the handout said.
Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman thanked her cabinet colleagues and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for approving the plan.
“Great service to Pakistan as it faces adaptation and resilience challenges,” she said, as she also thanked her team at the climate change ministry.
Responding to Rehman’s tweet, PM Shehbaz said that that climate change was “redefining every human experience on the planet”.
“In the long journey to build resilience, our government is proud to pass our country’s National Adaptation Plan, which will give Pakistan the essential tools to adapt to the risks of climate stress,” he said.
“As last year’s devastating floods showed, climate change is a development, economic, human and national security issue critical to the future of our peo-ple. All the more reason to invest in climate adaptation to build our core ca-pacities to fully cope with the challenge,” he said.
The premier also appreciated the efforts of the climate minister, her team and other stakeholders for their hard work.
Addressing a press conference later in the day in Islamabad, the climate change minister stated that Pakistan had become “ground zero” for global warming.
She said that last year’s floods in Pakistan were not a “random incident” and should not be classified as a natural occurrence. She added that Pakistan was now one of ten countries most vulnerable to climate change.
“It is a hotspot now,” Rehman said. “If you are breaking the record for the highest temperature for the past three years then that means you are top of the list,” she added.
Pakistan, which has the world’s fifth largest population, is responsible for less than 1pc of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to officials. However, it is one of the most vulnerable nations to the extreme weather caused by global warming.
Last summer, unprecedented monsoon rainfall had put a third of Pakistan un-der water, damaging two million homes and killing more than 1,700 people.
According to the latest report by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), 150 people have died in the country while 233 have been injured since June 25 due to the latest spell of monsoon rainfall.
