Latest news with #developmentbudget
Arab News
4 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Pakistan earmarks $3.5 billion for development projects in upcoming budget
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Monday that the Finance Division has allocated Rs1 trillion ($3.5 billion) for development projects in the upcoming budget for fiscal year 2025-26. The 2025–26 budget is expected to be presented by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb in Pakistan's lower house of parliament on June 10, following the Eid Al-Adha holidays, after the government postponed an earlier date of June 2. Providing the breakdown $3.5 billion development budget, Iqbal said Rs664 billion ($2.3 billion) would be allocated to infrastructure projects, including energy, water, transport, physical planning and housing. 'Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed that Rs120 billion ($426.7 million) be allocated for N25 Chaman-Quetta-Karachi Expressway,' he said at a press conference in Islamabad. 'Rs150 billion ($533.3 million) are for social sectors, special areas, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, have been allocated Rs63 billion ($223.9 million), and merged [tribal] districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been allocated Rs70 billion ($248.4 million).' Similarly, Rs53 billion ($188.3 million) have been earmarked for science and information technology, Rs9 billion ($32.2 million) for governance and reform projects, and Rs11 billion ($39.1 million) for production sectors, according to the minister. 'The majority [of allocation] is for water, power and highway sector,' he added. Late last month, Iqbal said Pakistan's defense spending would be hiked in the upcoming budget as the military would 'certainly require' more financial resources to defend the country against India. But neither Iqbal nor any other government official has so far shared any figures. Pakistan's defense budget currently stands at Rs2.122 trillion ($7.53 billion). The remarks came days after Pakistan and India attacked each other with missiles, drones and artillery in their worst conflict in decades that killed around 70 people on both sides. The two nations agreed to a ceasefire on May 10 after four days of hostilities sparked by a militant attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir in April. Pakistan's annual inflation rate rose to 3.5% in May, though the country's macroeconomic outlook has improved in recent months, supported by a stronger current account balance, increased remittances and declining inflation. Authorities remain cautious as they aim to build on recent economic stabilization, guide the country toward gradual growth, and reaffirm their commitment to ongoing economic reforms.
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Britain's new aid vision: less cash, more spin. The cost will be counted in lives
Last week, the government justified cutting the UK's development budget from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income – the lowest level in more than 25 years – by claiming Britain's role is now to 'share expertise', not hand out cash. With a straight face, the minister responsible, Jenny Chapman, told MPs on the international development committee that the age of the UK as 'a global charity' was over. But this isn't reinvention – it's abdication, wrapped in spin. No wonder Sarah Champion, the Labour MP who is chair of the committee, called Lady Chapman's remarks 'naive' and 'disrespectful'. Behind the slogans lies a brutal truth: lives will be lost, and Britain no longer cares. Dressing that up as the 'new normal' doesn't make it less callous. Kevin Watkins of the London School of Economics analysed the cuts and found no soft-landing options. He suggests charting a sensible course through this wreckage, noting that harm from the cuts is inevitable but not beyond mitigation. Dr Watkins' proposals – prioritising multilateralism, funding the global vaccine alliance (Gavi) and replenishing international lending facilities – would prevent some needless deaths. Ministers should adopt such an approach. The decision to raid the aid budget to fund increased defence spending was a shameful attempt to cosy up to Washington. The cuts were announced just before Sir Keir Starmer's White House meeting with Donald Trump, with no long-term strategy behind them. It's a deplorable trend: globally, aid levels could fall by $40bn this year. The gutting of USAID, the world's biggest spender on international development, by Elon Musk, was less fiscal policy than culture-war theatre. Foreign beneficiaries don't vote, and liberal-leaning aid contractors lack clout, so dismantling USAID shrinks 'globalism' while 'owning the establishment'. But the real casualties lie elsewhere. Memorably, Bill Gates said the idea of Mr Musk, the world's richest man, 'killing the world's poorest children is not a pretty one'. Countries that built health systems around USAID now face a reckoning. It wasn't just cash – it sustained disease surveillance, logistics and delivery. Ironically, much of it never left American hands, absorbed by US private interests. In the UK, University of Portsmouth researchers say aid increasingly serves foreign policy, not development. It's not just ineffective – it's cynical. Aid should change lives, not wave flags. All this as poor nations' debt crisis deepens. Without global reform, the Institute for Economic Justice warns, African nations face a cycle of distress blocking investment in basic needs. The UK recasts withdrawal as progress – holding up Ethiopia and Zimbabwe as model partners. But Georgetown University's Ken Opalo makes a cutting point: in diplomacy, when the music stops, those who outsourced ambition get exposed. Aid dependency, he argues, has hollowed out local ownership. With little planning, many governments now face a choice: take over essential services or cling to a vanishing donor model. Politicians should choose their words carefully. The former Tory development secretary Andrew Mitchell rightly criticised Boris Johnson's 'giant cashpoint in the sky' remark for damaging public support for aid. Labour ministers are guilty, too. Britain has replaced moral leadership with metrics, and compassion with calculation. The policy's defenders call it realism. But without vision, it's just surrender – leaving the world's poor to fend for themselves, forced to try to survive without the means to do so.
