KARACHI: Efforts on to rebuild institutions, Shaukat -DAWN

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Mr Shaukat Aziz praised President Pervez Musharraf for his continued support which, he said, made it possible to pursue such an elaborated reforms agenda. He appreciated the officials at the ministry of finance and the allied departments working not less than 12 hours-a-day to achieve the objectives.

“It was a surprise to find such type of devoted people in the public sector who are equally smart and active. They lack skills but that’s because they were neither trained nor exposed to the changing trends in the world.”

He said the national institutions had been ruined in the past, which needed re-building and the government was trying to institutionalise the reforms so that they could last.

“The time has gone when a country could have put in more controls and isolate from the rest of the world, now you have to be nimble and blend the local, regional and international factors to have sustainable and right solutions”, the minister said.

He reiterated that the decision of the President to side with the international coalition in the war against terrorism was not meant for monetary benefits.

Earlier, Editor of the “Euromoney” Peter Lee referred to his remarkable career from Citibank to the present assignment of finance minister of Pakistan where he took over when the economy was near the brink of collapse.

Debt had built to an almost intolerable 37 billion US dollars. Trade and fiscal deficits were entrenched. The governments had struggled to increase tax revenue and had borrowed instead. The people had become impoverished and following the nuclear tests in 1998, there was a total breakdown in bilateral and multilateral relationships with various agencies, he said.

Mr Shaukat Aziz succeeded in reassuring the foreign creditors that Pakistan would not walk away from its obligations. Through reforms of liberalising the foreign exchange flows, reducing the fiscal deficit, removing trade barriers and addressing the underlying structural causes that had brought Pakistan to such straights, the country’s reserves have crossed five billion US dollars, almost two-and-half times higher than those when the government came into office, he added.

The government managed to slash the fiscal deficit by more than 1 per cent of GDP for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2001. It has also kept the current account deficit below 2 per cent of the GDP and tax collection had been radically improved with tax receipts growing at a double-digit rate. Growth although damaged by severe drought, has picked up.

Mr Lee said Pakistan’s relations with the IMF and other bilateral creditors were now very good. In quick succession last month, Pakistan secured a key poverty reduction and growth facility with the IMF and a comprehensive restructuring of its Paris Club debts to sovereign creditors, he recalled and pointed out that without clear evidence of a sound record in macroeconomic management and timely introduction of structural reforms over the last two years, neither the IMF nor the Paris Club would have taken these steps.