Finance minister for mainstreaming urbanisation

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar on Thursday stressed the need for mainstreaming urbanisation to lead the country towards sustained development and promote growth and prosperity.

She was addressing the launching ceremony of the State of Pakistani Cities (SPC) report, spearheaded by the Ministry of Climate Change with the technical assistance of United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat).

She said the growth in urbanisation was due to many factors, including internal migration, influx of refugees, natural disasters, economic disparities in rural areas, and decline in agricultural sector.

The minister said various countries had to face a number of challenges due to urbanisation, including waste management, carbon emission and lack of civic sense, stressing the need that mainstreaming, equity and inclusiveness should be main principles of urbanisation, which would help socio-economic development.

She also cited the example of Karachi where urbanisation had created lot of problems. Dr Shamshad Akhtar highlighted the importance of focusing on sustainable development goals (SDGs) to help create a better Pakistan. The minister was of the view that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would help link cities and municipalities.

The SPC report had identified the underlying socioeconomic drivers contributing to the state of urbanisation in the ten largest cities namely, Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Peshawar, Multan, Hyderabad, Islamabad, and Quetta, and their efficacy to respond to the urbanisation challenges.