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| September 26, 2005 | Monday | Sha'aban 21, 1426 |
Greater voice sought for developing states
WASHINGTON, Sept 25: Pakistan urged the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on Sunday to give a greater voice to the developing countries in international financial institutions. “We appreciate the work that has so far been done on this aspect at the bank and the fund. But this work has not led in any directions where concrete actions can be implemented to achieve a real enhancement in voice of developing country shareholders,” Dr Salman Shah, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Economic Affairs, told a meeting of the board of governors of the World Bank and the IMF.
Dr Shah who is representing the country at the annual meetings of the two institutions, said any measures that fell short of increasing developing countries’ voting power would be inadequate to achieve the purpose.
“I urge fellow bank governors to come to an understanding on how to settle the issue of voice through voting power,” he said. He said Pakistan’s economy had mounted a strong recovery during the current fiscal year with a sustained improvement in prospects.
According to him, the most important achievements of the year include: high gross domestic product growth of 8.4 per cent supported by a strong growth in large-scale manufacturing of 15.6 per cent, a sharp pick up in agriculture of 7.5 per cent, continuing robust performance in service sector with 7.9 per cent growth and an extra-ordinary strengthening of consumer demand.
Other key achievements outlined by him include a 12 per cent growth in per capita income to $736; investment upturn gaining a stronger footing, particularly by the private sector; strong growth in consumption of energy reflecting rising level of economic activity; fiscal deficit remaining almost on target at 3.3 per cent of the GDP; high rates of export and import growth; sustained high level of workers’ remittances at $4.2 billion; continued accumulation of foreign exchange reserves and a stable exchange rate.
He also counted a sharp decline in public debt to 61.7 per cent of the GDP and external debt burden to 32.5 per cent and the passing of the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act, 2005, as important milestones for the country.
Dr Shah said that despite the achievements Pakistan was not complacent and was aware of the challenges lying ahead.
“The main challenges include sustaining the growth momentum with macro-economic stability; creating employment opportunities; raising the income levels of our people; and improving the country’s social indicators in sync with the strength of the economy,” he said.
Dr Shah said that for developing countries it had become more daunting to meet the targets of the Millennium Development Goals as another year went by and 2015 drew closer. He said it was more likely that many countries would miss the MDGs, largely because of missed opportunities for investing in pro-poor growth and human development.
“There simply has not been enough concessional money around in the multilateral financing system to scale up development assistance to make a real difference. What is needed is a large increase in concessional assistance and net resource transfers to poor countries,” said Dr Shah while reminding the World Bank and donors that they had a shared responsibility to find ways and means to urgently increase the net transfers.
He said one of the great challenges developing countries’ governments faced was to pursue growth with equity. “We believe that growth will only be sustainable if it is coupled with equity. The people have to be the drivers of growth and participants in the growth process,” he said.
He said the government had launched the Khushhal Pakistan programme to implement a community-driven development initiative across the country to realize the MDGs, focusing on the weaker and more deprived communities.
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