ISLAMABAD Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that due to the prudent economic management and decisive action, macro-economic stability has been restored, and both fiscal deficit and inflation have been brought under control. The Prime Minister while chairing the annual meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) at Prime Ministers Secretariat on Friday afternoon, observed that there was a broad based revival in the economy and the economy was projected to post-GDP growth of over 4 percent this year. While taking stock of the overall economic situation of the country and considering development agenda for the next fiscal year, the Prime Minister said that nothing was more important for the Government than the people of this country. Therefore, he stressed that the development agenda must directly benefit common man, and it should be broad-based, all-inclusive, across the board, and focusing on the needs of poor and vulnerable in the society. The Prime Minister mentioned that during the outgoing fiscal year, the country was confronted with multiple, economic and non-economic, internal and external challenges. He further said the economy had to weather global financial crunch, deep recession and a fall in export volumes. He observed that domestically, adverse security environment, energy shortages and infrastructure constraints imposed a heavy cost on the economy which beset the economy with serious fiscal imbalances threatening its macro-economic stability. However, he added, the prudent economic management and decisive action had successfully restored the macro-economic stability. During the outgoing fiscal year, the Prime Minister said, We were able to address some structural issues like NFC Award, Payment of Net Hydel Profits and Oil and Gas Royalties, Provincial Autonomy under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, Balochistan Package and Gilgit-Baltistan reforms package. He said the structural issues were being addressed and the stage was set for the economy to resume forward march. He stressed that economic sector planning for the next fiscal year must, therefore, consolidate and accelerate the growth process while maintaining macro-economic stability. The Prime Minister said since the provinces had been empowered financially and administratively, therefore, the Provincial Governments should now take on additional responsibilities for development on account of receiving the additional fiscal resources. He asked the provincial governments to define and pursue their own development agenda by using this additional space with responsibility to maximise gains to the people. In the context of new NFC Award and the 18th Constitutional Amendment, he urged the provinces to build the requisite administrative capacities to better plan and implement their development programs. He observed that both the Federal and the Provincial Governments would need to work in unison to eliminate duplication of efforts causing resource wastage. The Prime Minister cautioned, Resource constraints will continue to persist until we substantially increase domestic revenue mobilisation. He advised the Finance and the Provincial Governments to look for new ideas for resource mobilization and to also focus on efficiency gains. He said that the objectives of the annual plan for the next year are two fold; first is to direct resources to overcome energy and water shortages, while second is to invest in people to provide them better living conditions including health and education. In line with our stated development agenda, the Prime Minister stressed upon the need to pursue a policy of re-directing expenditures to less developed areas of Punjab, Sind and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and especially Balochistan, AJK, Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA. He urged to accelerate the development in these areas to address their sense of deprivation and bring them at par with other parts of the country. The Prime Minister reiterated that provision of relief to the poor and the common man, is number one priority of the present Government. He assured that the Government would honour the commitment made with them. He further said that we would put the poor at the heart of the development process as they had the first right on the state resources. He expressed his resolve to provide access to health, education, sanitation, water, housing and other social services to the children of the poor people. He said that 'this is exactly what our agenda is, and this is what we will pursue.