The next five-year development plan, the eighth so far, will soon be announced. No doubt, previous plans achieved a great deal in terms of development that covered a number of different areas.
While waiting for the next plan to be announced, however, we should ask if there is a possibility that the results achieved by the previous plan would be made public.
This is important so people will know what exactly has been achieved and what remains to be done; people also need to know the nature of problems and obstacles met in implementing, or trying to implement, these plans.
The media devotes much coverage to the announcement of development plans but when it comes to results and the highlighting of achievements and failures, there is no coverage. The public is too often left in the dark.
In previous plans, some of the targets were achieved while others were not. This of course is normal.
Leaving aside details, people want to know in a general way what has been done and what has been the outcome of the numerous efforts to diversify the sources of the national income.
One of the main aims has been to broaden and diversify the economic base by focusing on promising industries; this has included changing industries that rely heavily on the use of energy such as mining, tourism and information technology. This particular target in itself is a major economic plan that should have been vigorously pursued.
In order for such an effort to succeed, it must of course have the mechanisms and tools for transforming words into deeds.
The question is how much should the economy be broadened, what kind of industries should be changed, who is responsible for implementation, what the means of financing are and whether the mechanisms and tools to carry all this out exist.
All plans speak of diversification by reducing the heavy dependence on oil revenues but the reality is that all previous budgets have continued to depend heavily upon oil whose importance has been increasing year after year.
We are faced with problems of unemployment, insufficient economic growth, a well-entrenched bureaucracy and deteriorating public services whose cost keeps rising. Is all this in line with these development plans or has there been some deviation from the aims and targets?
Plans do not offer magic solutions and their success depends on whether they conform to the end objectives. Although responsible for charting development plans, the Ministry of Planning is not the only party responsible for their implementation.
The ministry must illustrate transparency and professionalism at the end of each five-year plan by issuing statements detailing both successes and failures.
