On Friday, Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan Khalid Khurshid Khan met with Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Omar Ayub Khan at the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Islamabad. Both sides reviewed priority areas and ongoing development activities for uplifting Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) during the discussion.
Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid briefed the minister about the government of GB’s different efforts, as well as their future development demands and priority areas.
It was decided at the conference to construct a cutting-edge Technical Training University in Gilgit-Baltistan. The Economic Affairs Division would look for foreign technical and financial assistance, while the British government will offer roughly 800-1000 kanal land for the university’s construction.
The chief minister also requested upgrades to road and health-care infrastructure, as well as improvements to power generation, transmission, and distribution systems, health-care facility expansion, and public-sector capacity building, particularly in governance, finance, and revenue, local government, public health, police, and disaster management.
During the conference, the development of an additional road network for connection between Punjab and GB via Azad Jammu and Kashmir was also discussed.
The alternate road will not only cut travel time and distance in half, but it will also encourage tourism and boost economic activity in the area.
On Khalid Khurshid’s invitation, the minister promised to visit the GB soon to examine the country’s development needs and priorities in greater depth. The Economic Affairs Division will also convene a donors meeting with bilateral and multilateral development partners at the start of next year to explore external technical and financial help for the GB.
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