KARACHI: The seven pillars of Vision-2025 are fully aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and provide a comprehensive long-term strategy for achieving inclusive growth, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Friday.

The central bank issued the ‘SDGs and sustainability report — Pakistan banking sector perspective’ document on Friday. The report was unveiled in Dubai on March 23 at the ‘Role of the SDGs’ event organised by the Global Ethical Finance Initiative (GEFI) in collaboration with the Government of Scotland and United Kingdom Islamic Finance Council (UKIFC).

Addressing the event, SBP Governor Dr Reza Baqir said, “Pakistan is one of the first few countries to adopt the SDGs 2030 agenda through a unanimous resolution of Parliament.”

He highlighted some of the key initiatives undertaken by the SBP in the recent times including a landmark policy titled ‘Banking on Equality’ to address gender gap in financial inclusion and the flagship ‘Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar’ (MPMG) scheme to provide financing for low-cost and affordable housing in the country which was nonexistent prior to 2021.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2022