Medium Term Development Framework

The Medium Term Development Framework (denoted as MTDF), is a policy measure programme of the Government of Pakistan drafted by the Ministry of Finance, Economic Coordination Committee and the Planning Commission of Pakistan, formulated to strengthened to national economy, civil infrastructure, and economical growth of the country.

Drafted and launched by former Prime minister Shaukat Aziz in 2005, the programme is visioned to turn the country into a major industrialized nation, rapid human development and to sustained an ingenious economic system for reducing poverty and to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The programme replaced the existing centralize economic system of Pakistan, known as Five-Year Plans which had been in effect since 1948. The programme emphasized on the macroeconomics principles with the development of scientific technology and the human resource, while guiding the formulation of policies in areas such as education, labor, trade, science and technology, taxation, and financial management. The first set of plans were approved by Shaukat Aziz in 2005-10, and incorporated a shift towards competitiveness of the national economy through higher private-sector investment and to gained knowledge inputs to maximize total factor productivity.

The genesis of the programme traced back to early 2001, when the economic coordination committee working under Shaukat Aziz took the research on developing a ten-year long policy measure programme, and adopted the concept of three-year rolling plans for its implementation. The recommendations were prepared in the background of various economic sanctions imposed on Pakistan in 1998, until the economy was uplifted in 2001. Finally, on June 1, 2004, the programme was launched by Shaukat Aziz and gave its constitutional picture on March 5, 2005.