KARACHI, Oct 2: Pakistan’s current net indebtedness, according to international standards, is now 30 billion dollars, the Governor of State Bank of Pakistan Dr Ishrat Hussain informed newsmen on Wednesday.

Talking to newsmen after he had delivered his keynote address on Economic Development in Sindh in the concluding session of two-day conference sponsored by Dawn, the State Bank Governor said the international standard to judge the net indebtedness of a country is to minus the foreign exchange reserves from total debt liability.

He said that Pakistan has retired 4.5 billion dollars expensive commercial loans in last two years and contracted 2 billion dollars new loans on soft terms. “Pakistan’s current foreign debt liability is 36 billion dollars and net indebtedness comes to roughly 30 billion dollars after you take into account about 6 billion dollars of central bank’s foreign exchange reserves.”

He estimated 1.25 to 2 billion dollars amount put in the SBP by the central banks of China, Abu Dhabi and other countries in Pakistan.

“We have asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for pre-payment of stand-by loans,” Dr Ishrat Hussain replied when asked if the Pakistani team of financial managers discussed the issue of debt retirement with the IMF.

“Now that Pakistan has sufficient foreign exchange reserves and dollars are pouring in, our objective is to pay off expensive debts,” he said.

He said that on return of Pakistan’s Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz the financial and monetary managers will have a look at the debt portfolio to identify those loans which have to be retired.

Earlier, in his speech in the concluding session of the two-day conference on ‘Economic Development in Sindh’ the State Bank Governor urged a long-term vision of development.

He advised to emulate China where long-term vision of the leadership has transformed the life of over a billion people. “In 1979 China opened up and its leaders visualised certain projections for 1990, 2000 and 2010 and much beyond,” he said. “While China is moving ahead on long-term plans, we are stuck up with five-year plans,” he remarked.

Globalisation, Dr Ishrat said, is moving ahead with ferocious speed and time is not far when Pakistan would be competing with 184 countries of the world to claim its global share in the international market.

For that, he said updating skills remains an indispensable element of strategy to grow and develop.

The SBP governor made a pointed reference to those who harp on federal-provincial and inter-provincial disharmony. This attitude, he regretted, has given nothing and he urged to work for the “enlargement of the cake” rather than demanding “a bigger slice from the cake”. “Unless we work together, the size of the cake will remain same,” he stressed.

Dr Ishrat also spoke about those who claim to be champions of Sindh cause and he advised them to prepare themselves for greater challenges ahead rather than “copying in the examinations and bullying the examiner.”

He said the devolution of power has opened up a new landscape where community will now play a greater role in the economic development.

He said that performance has come to acquire a secondary position in Pakistan where academic degrees and status is given preference. In this context he quoted a specific instance. The State Bank he said advertised for 30 economists about three years back and received 600 applications. “Only 14 were found of relevant aptitude and deserving despite all academic qualifications,” he informed the audience.

In the last working session (fourth on Wednesday and seventh in two days conference) Humayun Bashir, country manager of IBM, appreciated the government of giving due recognition to Information Technology and coming out with a policy of Rs15 billion investment in next three years.

He said a meaningful headway can only be made if country produces 25,000 IT graduates every year. Zaheer Mirza of a private engineering and consultancy company spoke of the spread of poverty disease and offered a prescription.