Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar said on Tuesday that journey towards growth trajectory had started after achieving macro-economic stability and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor would play a vital role in achieving the set goal.
Addressing a round table conference on ‘Pakistan paradise for investment’, he said that foreign direct investment (FDI) was vital for economic development of any country including Pakistan.
To attract FDI, he said macro-economic stability was pre-requisite and the country had achieved this target which had also been recognised by reputed international financial and other institutions.
Ishaq Dar said for enhancing FDI in the country sufficient energy was required to meet the growing industrialization demand and the government had addressed the circular debt issues and paid about Rs 480 billion to power companies.
Besides, he said, the work had been started on mega energy production projects to generate sufficient energy to meet the future energy demands and achieve higher growth targets. By December 2017, about 10,000 MW electricity would be added to national grid besides improving transmission lines which would help further enhance DGP growth.
The minister said some two years back multilateral institutions and financial institutions were forecasting that Pakistan’s economy was heading towards default as its foreign exchange reserves were reduced to US$ 3 billion.
To avoid the default and achieve macro-economic stability, the government had introduced a reforms agenda to take steps for putting the economy back on track, he added.
He said due to reforms agenda the government had achieved major successes in economic front during the last two years and forex reserves had reached the historic heights of $ 18.5 billion.
Now, he said, there were sufficient central reserves for payments of four months. He said the government was sticking to its elections manifesto that consists of 4Es including economy, energy, elimination of extremism and education. Highlighting the economic performance of the government, he said during the last two years GDP growth accelerated, revenue collection witnessed 16 percent increase and crossed Rs 2478 billion mark.
He said after a long gape Pakistan had re-entered in international bond market and issued bond and sukuk that had received overwhelming response.
