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ISLAMABAD, Dec 19: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Monday said that the gross domestic gross product (GDP) of the country would grow between 6 to 8 per cent during the current fiscal despite the challenges posed by the higher oil prices and the last year’s overheating in the economy.
“The investment level is strong and the economy is moving in the right direction, though we are facing the challenges of inflation, external account deficit and higher international oil prices”, said Mr Aziz while speaking at the inaugural session of the 21st Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists here.
“There must be a philosophy for the development of a nation’s economy. We have this philosophy now in the form of liberalization, privatization and deregulation. Now, it is not the business of the government to do business”, the prime minister said.
Six years ago, Mr Aziz said, the country faced challenges of different nature: it was in debt trap, technical defaults in its balance of payment, poor credit rating and lack of credibility in the eyes of the international donors. At that time, he said, when he took over as the finance minister the economy was in “crisis management”. There was need for good governance and structural reforms.
“We were living from crisis to crisis six years back”, Mr Aziz added.
He said reforms at macro level were never enough for improving social indicators but sustained, credible, deep and broad based reforms were needed to trickle down the economic growth to the gross roots level. He said that many of the programmes implemented by international donors had failed to build ownership because those programmes were implemented under “cookie cutter” approach. He said that the government had now told those financial institutions that they must create ownership while implementing their programmes in Pakistan.
KNOWLEDGE GAP: He said Pakistan was suffering from sever knowledge and skill gap, and, with the passage of time it was becoming harder and harder for the country’s labourer to survive the knowledge-based economies. He said no one could deny the importance of PhDs for a country like Pakistan, but there was also an urgent need to provide the people the skills needed by the market and essential for industrial growth.
Mr Aziz said that from banking to industry various sectors in Pakistan faced shortage of skilled workers. Pakistan had a huge human capital and to utilize it properly the government must foster out of the box thinking and reform secondary and higher education system, he added.
“We recognize efficient and innovative economy as a real key to higher productivity and value addition”, the prime minister said.
PRIVATIZATION: He said that despite opposition the government had vigorously pursued a transparent privatization process and there was not even a single sector that was now a taboo for privatization. He said these days it was the worst option when governments thought which percentage of shares it should posses in a company after privatization.
Now, he said, capital crossed geographical boundaries in search of profit and Pakistan had proven to be one of the better options for investment. He said data showed that the newly opened businesses in Pakistan were earning more profit compared to the old ones.
