5.6 Action Plan for Safeguarding Infrastructure
Availability
The aim of development planning is to overcome the shortcomings of the market
mechanism and to provide a blueprint for achieving the maximum rate of development
possible. A development plan normally seeks to maximise the growth of the nation’s
GNP over time, with due attention being paid (especially in more recent years) to the
serious unemployment and underemployment problems that the nation may face.
A good development plan generally includes the following:
(1) a survey of the nation’s current economic situation;
(2) an objective and systematic designation of realistic objectives or targets;
(3) a realistic macro plan subdivided into a consistent multisectoral plan composed
of well drawn up projects representing the most efficient utilisation of the
nation’s resources;
(4) the proper phasing of the plan in time and space;
(5) a public investment program, chiefly for infrastructures;
(6) policies to stimulate, direct, and influence private investment in the desired
quantity and direction;
(7) a co-ordinated program to raise and channel sufficient resources, domestic and
foreign, to finance the desired public and private investment programs;
(8) policies aimed at changing basic institutions, including labour training, land
reform, trade policy, etc.; and
(9) a program to enlist the co-operation and support of the people of the nation.
5.6.1 The Plan Period
Plans are made for three different time durations: the long, medium and short terms.
The short term is the Annual Plan. A most popular choice for the medium term is
5 years, but may range between 3 and 7 years. The long term is often taken between
10 years and 20 years. There are several reasons (see earlier discussion) why this
could extend up to a hundred years.
The income tax or the health service, are ordinary instruments, whereas planning
has a broader objective. As it is oriented to the general objective of developing the
national economy, a Plan is concerned with strategy and specific policy acts which
define the tactics which execute the strategy.
Writing a plan involves looking at economic policy as a totality, at the interconnections between various policy instruments and the web of reactions they set up. In
other words, preparing a plan can be viewed as a way of arriving at a set of decisions
which is internally consistent and reinforcing. A plan is, thus, a super-instrument: it
is policy seen as a whole.
Nevertheless, a policy-by-policy or problem-by-problem approach to the neglect
of viewing economic policies as a co-ordinated whole may not give an efficient
148
5 The Long Term Plan for Infrastructure
Availability
The aim of development planning is to overcome the shortcomings of the market
mechanism and to provide a blueprint for achieving the maximum rate of development
possible. A development plan normally seeks to maximise the growth of the nation’s
GNP over time, with due attention being paid (especially in more recent years) to the
serious unemployment and underemployment problems that the nation may face.
A good development plan generally includes the following:
(1) a survey of the nation’s current economic situation;
(2) an objective and systematic designation of realistic objectives or targets;
(3) a realistic macro plan subdivided into a consistent multisectoral plan composed
of well drawn up projects representing the most efficient utilisation of the
nation’s resources;
(4) the proper phasing of the plan in time and space;
(5) a public investment program, chiefly for infrastructures;
(6) policies to stimulate, direct, and influence private investment in the desired
quantity and direction;
(7) a co-ordinated program to raise and channel sufficient resources, domestic and
foreign, to finance the desired public and private investment programs;
(8) policies aimed at changing basic institutions, including labour training, land
reform, trade policy, etc.; and
(9) a program to enlist the co-operation and support of the people of the nation.
5.6.1 The Plan Period
Plans are made for three different time durations: the long, medium and short terms.
The short term is the Annual Plan. A most popular choice for the medium term is
5 years, but may range between 3 and 7 years. The long term is often taken between
10 years and 20 years. There are several reasons (see earlier discussion) why this
could extend up to a hundred years.
The income tax or the health service, are ordinary instruments, whereas planning
has a broader objective. As it is oriented to the general objective of developing the
national economy, a Plan is concerned with strategy and specific policy acts which
define the tactics which execute the strategy.
Writing a plan involves looking at economic policy as a totality, at the interconnections between various policy instruments and the web of reactions they set up. In
other words, preparing a plan can be viewed as a way of arriving at a set of decisions
which is internally consistent and reinforcing. A plan is, thus, a super-instrument: it
is policy seen as a whole.
Nevertheless, a policy-by-policy or problem-by-problem approach to the neglect
of viewing economic policies as a co-ordinated whole may not give an efficient
148
5 The Long Term Plan for Infrastructure