This is regional development plan of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan prepared by ADB as Technical Assistance Report.
This Regional Development Plan (RDP) identifies the key challenges that must be addressed to uplift the development of the region and to provide long-term sustainable and focused development. The RDP provides a 25-year strategic planning framework that aims to, promotion of sustainable urban and regional development through integrated and coordinated planning in order to regularize the region’s future physical development; identification of sustainable economic growth and development opportunities; ensuring adequate and improved levels of connectivity and municipal services through necessary and essential investments in infrastructure. Swat is a mountainous region, located among the foothills of the Hindukush Mountain range. The Swat District has lush green valleys, snow-covered glaciers, forests, meadows and plains. The topography of the District is varied but is dominated by the Swat valley; development in the region is severely constrained by the local topography and is confined, in the main, to the Swat valley.
Pakistan is the most rapidly urbanizing country in the South Asia. In 2017, 36.4 percent of the Pakistani population was living in urban areas as compared to 32.5 percent in 1998. It is estimated that by 2025 nearly half the country’s population will be living in cities. Notwithstanding that economic activities in urban areas produce more than 75 percent of national gross domestic product (GDP), more than 15 percent of the urban population lives in poverty. Overall, the urban infrastructure is inadequate and is aging, with insufficient investments to maintain basic services or stimulate economic growth and create jobs. A lack of strategic planning combined with inappropriate regulation, weak planning standards, and inefficient resource allocation, has resulted in major urban problems across Pakistan.