DUBAI, Sept 21: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said here on Sunday that as a result of the successful financial sector reforms in Pakistan, the private sector was playing a dominant role in the country’s economic development.

“Spread over a decade, the reforms implemented in the financial sector have covered almost all the key elements of the sector’s working,” Mr Aziz said while addressing a seminar on “financial sector reforms and private sector development” held here on the sidelines of the Annual Meeting of the IMF and the World Bank.

Mr Aziz chaired the seminar in which experts from around the world participated.

The finance minister cited autonomy of the central bank, prudential regulations, institution of market-based monetary management, privatization of public sector financial institutions and strengthening of the legal system as key areas where far-reaching reform measures had been implemented.

“Indeed, it will be accurate to say that these reforms, coupled with those in other sectors, have unleashed the real potential of the private sector that was constantly stifled by an overbearing and highly inefficient public sector,” he observed.

Mr Aziz, however, maintained that there were important lessons for developing countries in Pakistan’s experience, adding that isolated targeting of one sector alone will not work.

“The financial sector reforms have to be embedded in the larger reforms process that limits the government role in direct economic activities, expands the role of the private sector and strengthens the regulatory functions of institutions burdened with regulatory responsibilities,” he added.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz called on Crown Prince of Dubai Shaikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum.—APP