PESHAWAR: Special assistant to chief minister on excise and taxation Ghazan Jamal on Wednesday said though all other forms of development were important, it was the investment in human development that would make a lasting impact on the development of the merged districts.
He was speaking at the concluding ceremony of a six-month-long vocational training programme for the youths of the merged districts at the Human Resource Development Centre of the Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) in Hayatabad.
Provincial minister for relief and rehabilitation Iqbal Wazir, adviser to chief minister on industries Abdul Karim Khan, Resident Representative of UNDP Ignacio Artaza and Sajjad Khan, Tveta manager, also attended the ceremony.
The training programme is one of the components of the Merged Districts’ Economic Revitalisation Programme, which is being implemented in a 20-month period in North Waziristan, South Waziristan and Khyber districts by the SRSP with the financial support of the UNDP and the USAID.
Mr Jamal said with the youth bulge in the population growth, focus on them was vital to lay down a sound foundation for sustainable economic development in the region.
The government was making every effort to include the youth in the development process in the merged districts, he said and urged the youths to benefit from the social safety net programmes the government was initiating in their districts.
Abdul Karim, adviser to the chief minister on industries, congratulated the SRSP for setting up a modern vocational and human resource centre. He said the skill training was only one component of the training as awareness building and sensitisation were equally important.
The training centre offers excellent opportunities for trainees from the remote parts of the province to learn in an ideal environment and they must make the best of it, he said, adding the government would seek technical assistance on some of its mineral development programmes from the donors, particularly the UNDP.
