Pakistan on verge of momentous transformation: Dar

Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar has said that Pakistan of today is better than Pakistan of yesterday as it stands on the verge of a momentous transformation.

“An economically strong, democratic Pakistan will not only defeat extremism at home but would contribute immensely to the stability of the region. It will also be an engine of growth for the regional economies with its strategic location to sea and contiguity to vast land mass of South Asia that connects efficiently to the Eurasian land mass as well”.

The finance minister said this while speaking at international seminar: “Crossroads Asia: Dynamics of Peace and Progress” organised by NationalDefenceUniversity on Tuesday. He said the PML-N government was fully committed to harness the economy of Pakistan through appropriate policies and a strategic vision. The government has a long-term development plan aimed at creating a globally competitive and prosperous country with particular emphasis on achieving macroeconomic stability through inclusive growth and it aims to achieve growth of around 7 per cent. This is necessary to address poverty incidence and unemployment while improving socio-economic indicators including health and education. It is also working to improve the energy mix to avoid the need for tariff increases and to attract foreign direct investment.

Giving a future road map of the government, he said  they intended to take GDP growth gradually to around 7 per cent; keep inflation to less than 8 per cent, fiscal deficit to be brought down to 4 per cent; take Foreign exchange reserves to US$ 20 billion; raise Investment-to-GDP ratio – 22 percent; industrial sector growth to 8 per cent; public debt to be brought down to less than 57 per cent of GDP; tax-to-GDP ratio to be increased to 15 per cent; exports to be increased to US$ 32 billion; foreign direct investment to be increased to US$ 5.5 billion; spending around 4 per cent of GDP on education and health, with key social indicators equal or better than regional countries; poverty alleviation and support to vulnerable sections of the society; massive reduction in loadshedding of electricity; and shortage of natural gas to be met with enhanced supplies through increased exploration/production and imports, both overland and sea.

Dar pointed out that Pakistan had undergone a remarkable economic recovery over a short period of time, which was widely acknowledged by independent analysts, particularly international financial institutions. Even though the government of inherited a broken economy, it was not deterred by the challenges it faced, he added.

International think tanks and research groups have recognised Pakistan’s impressive economic turnaround in the first year of their government, he added. JETRO declared Pakistan as likely to be the second choicest place for FDI; Goldman Sachs forecasted that Pakistan, which is currently at 44th position, would be world’s 18th largest economy by 2050; OICCI raised Pakistan’s index from negative 34 to positive 2; Moody’s raised our economic outlook from negative to positive; in Nielsen’s Global Survey of Consumer Confidence, Pakistan’s index rose to 99 in the 1st Quarter of 2014 from the lowest level of 86 in the 3rd Quarter of 2011 and, just recently, Morgan Stanley has declared that the rise of Pakistan is just a matter of time.

He said Geography has exposed Pakistan to conflict-prong situations in our neighborhood that have tremendously impacted on our socio-economic fabric and progress as part of a larger fraternity of nations.  It is in this context that we would like to look at Afghanistan beyond the current peril and to stabilization in this brotherly nation, following decades of conflict, and to their move towards playing a role that belongs to them.