ISLAMABAD: A high level official at the United Nations Development Programme has said that Pakistan will inevitably have to tap into domestic finance, from the state and the private sector, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

UN Assistant Secretary-General Haoliang Xu is on a three day visit to Pakistan to review the ongoing collaboration with government leaders and senior officials, and to suggest ways Pakistan can overcome existing challenges towards achieving the SDGs.

While speaking to Dawn ahead of his talks, Mr Xu, who is also the director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, suggested that Pakistan would need to increase revenue generation and referred to development finance studies carried out by the UNDP for countries in the Asia-Pacific region where public finance accounts for 30 to 70pc of development requirements.

Expanding the tax to GDP ratio would provide additional resources for the social sector and promote inclusive growth, which would have a positive effect to attract business investments. He said investing in the youth is essential, focusing on skills training, entrepreneurship and jobs.

Mr Xu was encouraged by the government’s social agenda, suggesting that appropriate measures are critical to ensuring inclusive growth.

He emphasised the need to engage the private sector in development, citing examples of Malaysia and Indonesia, where the UNDP helped use Islamic finance tools such as the Zakat Fund and Green Sukkuk to fund the SDGs.

He indicated that establishing proper enabling conditions to encourage the private sector to invest in social impact would go a long way in developing the country.

Referring to the SDGs, Mr Xu said that Pakistan has made good progress. It is among the few countries whose parliaments have adopted the SDGs as a national development framework.

Mr Xu, who once served in Pakistan with the UNDP, noted the progress made by Pakistan in reducing poverty from 50pc in mid-2000 to below 25pc. However, this is still relatively high compared to regional average and inequality remains a persistent challenge.

He said he was encouraged to see that parliamentarians have taken the SDG agenda seriously, citing efforts by national and provincial assemblies to enhance their oversight role and hold governments accountable, and monitor progress on SDGs. While a lot remains to be done, the level of national ownership is very encouraging, he remarked.

In this regard, Pakistan can share its institutional framework model with other countries in the region.

“I could not find countries in Asia-Pacific where parliament has formed a committee on SDGs. Pakistan has taken this approach much earlier and this shows the strong commitment of Pakistan towards SDGs,” he said.

He said that Pakistan faces many challenges, particularly in social sectors. For example, malnutrition is quite high, resulting in a high stunting rate, a challenge affecting present and future generations.

Mr Xu said Pakistan could learn from other countries’ mistakes and avoid the same development traps.

For instance, referring to China, where rapid economic growth was at the expense of the environment, he suggested that Pakistan should upscale investments in renewable energy, which would also create business opportunities.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2019