Former Finance Minister Shahid Javed Burki said on Thursday that crises of governance, rent seeking culture and corruption has increased in the country and the only way forward is to curb these evils for restoring investor confidence for the revival of the economy. Delivering his key note address at a seminar titled, “Pakistan; Moving the Economy Forward”, organized by Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), he said in the past Pakistan always took the short term measures to respond to any crisis that hit the economy. Pakistan always depended on foreign assistance instead of devising long term strategy.
He suggested that to build the confidence in economy the next government should have some strategic framework for sustainable economic growth. Currently Pakistan economy is facing trust deficit as no one is ready to invest in Pakistan so first and foremost is the confidence building. He stressed creation of a system of accountability that could give message to the people that those sitting on decision making positions would make decisions on merit. About sustainable economic growth he said it could be achieved only if more space was provided to private sector to work and establishment of a regulatory system to provide protection to citizens instead of rent seeking. Pakistan should focus on regional integration, and increase trading with neighbor countries like India and China which could add up to 2-4 percent in growth rate.
