Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar Tuesday congratulated the nation on the historic achievement of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), which crossed a 50,000 point trading benchmark for the first time in its history.
“It is a historic day for Pakistan,” the finance minister said in an interview with Pakistan Television (PTV), adding that this reflects the potential of the country.
The minister had earlier said unless the three stock exchanges, Karachi Stock Exchange, Lahore Stock Exchange, and Islamabad Stock Exchange merged, the chances of progress were very limited.
After the merger the PSX had witnessed considerable growth and had been declared among the top five fifth performing markets, the minister said.
The minister said that the merger had been bearing fruit, as the PSX continued its record-breaking upward trajectory on Tuesday by crossing the 50,000 point barrier.
The minister said that due to the prudent policies of the government, the economy was growing and macroeconomic indicators were showing a positive performance.
He said that the GDP witnessed the highest growth rate in eight years and that this year, over 5 percent growth rate would be achieved, adding that organisations including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank had also predicted a five percent plus growth rate for Pakistan.
Dar noted that the world was witnessing declining trends, but Pakistan was witnessing a growing GDP.
“However, Pakistan will have to follow best practices of the world to keep on its journey of progress,” the minister said.
The minister said that the government was paying equal attention towards all sectors of the economy. Industry shared 21% of the GDP, agriculture 21 %, and the services sector had a 58% share.
He said in terms of quantity, the exports of many commodities witnessed positive growth during the current year.
Ishaq Dar said that the government had announced incentive packages for exports and agriculture sectors to make the Pakistani products competitive in the international market.
“During the first five months (July-November), the large scale manufacturing (LSM) sector witnessed 8% growth whereas the agricultural sector grew by 10 percent,” Dar said.
The minister added that the Companies Bill had been laid before the parliament to make the maintenance of global asset registration mandatory. According to this law, companies would have to record their global assets and reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.
FM chairs meeting to review privatisation matters
Meanwhile, the finance minister also chaired a meeting to review matters related to privatisation here at the ministry of finance on Tuesday.
Privatisation Commission Chairman Mohammad Zubair briefed the minister on the status of the ongoing privatisation transactions. He apprised the minister on the status of various state-owned entities including Pakistan Steel Mills and SME Bank. The finance minister emphasised that the government’s utmost priority with respect to privatisation was to ensure that transactions are conducted in an open, fair and transparent manner.
He said that the government is actively working to resolve the financial bleeding caused to the national exchequer by loss-making state-owned enterprises. He stated that the government makes a decision regarding the restructuring or privatisation of each loss-making entity on a case-by-case basis while keeping in view the specific circumstances of each entity, and in the best interests of the people of Pakistan.
He urged the privatisation commission to complete the ongoing transactions in a timely manner whilst ensuring full compliance with the applicable laws and regulations.
