Govt asked to request development partners to diversify portfolio.

Byline: Imran Ali Kundi

ISLAMABAD -- The Economic Affairs Division (EAD) has recommended the government that development partners should be requested to diversify their portfolio and more focus may be put on the projects in education, health, rural development and poverty reduction. The Policy Analysis and Development Wing of EAD conducted sectoral analysis of foreign economic assistance to provide insights of sectoral composition of foreign assistance received by the country from multiple sources during July 2014 to December 2019. The analysis stated that very limited commitments of foreign assistance were made for the social sectors, i.e. education (3 percent), health (1 percent), rural development and poverty reduction (4 percent); and (vi) portfolio of multilateral and bilateral development partners are also not diversified in terms of commitments made in various sectors of the economy as 87 percent of new commitments from China are for transport and communication sectors, while South Korea has projects only in health, transport, energy and science and technology sectors. Based on these analysis the Policy Analysis and Development Wing framed policy recommendations for Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives and EAD. The EAD has recommended that there is a need to amend Guidelines for Project Management, 2008 for bringing clarity and fixing responsibility for the alignment of foreign funded projects with overall economic framework of the country. If it is the responsibility of Ministry of...