According to local reports, the Pakistani government’s Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), as well as growth in the private housing sector, has provided a boost to the country’s construction sector. Furthermore, the government programme has helped to increase cement sales throughout the country over the past few years.
The PSDP is the main instrument for providing budgetary resources for development projects and programmes in Pakistan in different sectors of the economy. According to International Growth Centre (IGC) research, PSDP has a strong relationship with growth in Pakistan – if the PSDP is cut by 10%, growth falls by 0.3% in that year. This relationship would be even stronger if improvements were made to the design of the PSDP.
Funding for the development programme has been increased to approximately Rs.525 billion – up to Rs.113.4 billion of this has been allocated to the National Highway Authority (NHA) and an additional Rs.5 billion has been given to the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA). Local news reports suggest that the forthcoming budget will include sizable allocations towards infrastructure and construction related projects.
Edited from various sources by Rosalie Starling