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Economic outreach apex committee led by Special Assistant to the P.M. Moeed Yusuf to work toward economic diplomacy
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday directed the federal food security ministry and all four provinces to collect and collate data on agriculture production, consumption, wastage and exports so the government can accurately gauge demand and supply of commodities.
Chairing a meeting to review agricultural sector reforms, he ordered the creation of an action plan based on medium and long-term timelines to increase production and modernize the vital sector. He also directed expediting the process of activating the National Food Security Dashboard at the Ministry of Food Security with assistance of the provinces and departments concerned.
The prime minister stressed on a robust and integrated system of coordination among all stakeholders, including research institutes, universities and related institutions. He urged authorities to avail Chinese experience, expertise and cooperation to boost yields, and said agro-ecological zones should be re-organized.
He also affirmed his support to commodities such as olives and pulses, which needed imports to meet their domestic need.
The meeting, attended by Food Security Minister Syed Fakhr Imam, Information Minsiter Shibli Faraz spokesman Shahbaz Gill, and senior officers of the agricultural sector, also received a detailed briefing on the prevalent situation, as well as progress on the Prime Minister’s Agriculture Emergency Program and efforts to boost production of various commodities.
Citizens portal
In another meeting on Wednesday, Khan directed the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit (PMDU) to link all complaint cells of federal government departments to the Pakistan Citizen Portal (PCP). He said this process to determine modalities and evolve integration plans should be completed within 60 days.
The Pakistan Citizens Portal, working under the PMDU since October 2018, receives 115,000 complaints from 28 million people per month and currently boasts a total of 2.3 million complaints lodged. The PMDU informed the meeting that 2.2 million of the complaints had been resolved, with 40 percent of respondents confirming satisfaction.
The integration plans aims at reducing confusion for citizens on which platforms to register their complaints. Once implemented, claimed the meeting’s participants, all complaints would be processed in real time.
Economic outreach
In a third meeting, Prime Minister Khan ordered the formation of an economic outreach apex committee headed by Special Assistant on National Security Moeed Yusuf to promote economic diplomacy. According to a press release issued by the Prime Minister Office’s media wing, a separate economic outreach coordination group would ensure collaboration between various federal ministries, provincial departments and other institutions and monitor target achievement.
The meeting was briefed on a roadmap of local potential with respect to promotion of economic diplomacy, existing challenges and steps to overcome those issues. Khan stressed the need to promote economic diplomacy, saying Pakistan could further strengthen bilateral ties with different countries and fully explore its potential in the economic field by availing this option.
He also directed Pakistani embassies and missions abroad to focus on promoting this initiative and ordered the Board of Investment to provide all possible facilities to foreign investors seeking to invest in the country.