ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday called for speeding up the pace of work on projects and initiatives launched under the Vision-2025.

All projects should conform to highest standards of transparency, he said while chairing a review meeting of the commission’s projects.

He emphasised that cost rationalisation should be ensured while designing and executing the projects to save precious national resources.

Corrective measures be made well in time to avoid delays.

While reviewing the progress on various projects, Iqbal observed that the Planning Commission was being converted into a development ‘think-tank’ that would produce research to assess the needs of new age and suggest ways and means to deal with the emerging challenges.

“We should harness resources and establish partnership with the academia to get maximum results of our initiatives,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2015