ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal said on Wednesday that Pakistan was in serious need of a ‘decade of political stability’ to stabilise the national economy and achieve the consistent growth trajectory.
Addressing an international conference in Islamabad, he said that there was a great opportunity to ensure political stability, streamline the internal system, and create a decade of stability as fiscal policies do prove result-oriented before 10 years.
The seminar titled “Developments in the Middle East: Lessons and Opportunities for Pakistan” was held under the aegis of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute.
Ahsan Iqbal highlights PML-N last tenure
During 2013-18, Iqbal recalled that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government effectively dealt with the problems of load-shedding, security, terrorism, and economy besides bringing around 29 billion dollars investment under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects. But unfortunately, the development-trajectory was punctured in 2018 general election in the shape of artificial change.
Highlighting the national development during the PML-N last government, Iqbal said the Price Waterhouse Coopers, an international ranking company, had predicted that Pakistan would be included in the top 20 global economies by 2030.
He said that all stakeholders, remaining within their respective domains, should think how they could align themselves with the shared vision of Pakistan to move forward towards the prosperity and development, adopting the harmonized and collaborative mode.
He further said that there was a wide scope for Pakistan to enhance cooperation with Middle Eastern nations and get technologies, investment, and expertise in various fields like livestock, information technology, agriculture, human resource development and mining, which would be useful for increasing the country’s exports.
He said the region was witnessing a rapid-pace development projects for which the skilled manpower is required, and accordingly the government established a Task Force to align the workforce and youth of Pakistan with the market-based demands.
Iqbal said that according to an estimate, the trade volume between Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Asian nations would exceed the figure of 600 billion dollars by 2030.
The minister said that Pakistan had strategic partnership with Middle Eastern nations, European Union, US, China, and GCC states, adding Pakistanis living in different countries were considerably contributing to the national economy through remittances.