ISLAMABAD: The two-day international conference on “Framework for Economic Growth Pakistan” concluded here on Thursday with the call for including youth of the country in policy making procedure to get the maximum growth level.

“We have not invested in reforming and changing the economic policy procedure. Let us start investing in the youth who can play vital role in bringing reforms and change in the country”, said Dr Nadeemul Haq, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, while addressing the concluding session of the conference.

He urged the students of different universities to work hard in research and contribute maximum research papers which could help the government to make reformed policies for the development of the country.

Fauzia Wahab, Chairperson of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Finance said that without political stability and continuity, no country could develop economically.” A powerful political system can help implement growth policies”, she said and added that political continuity in Malaysia and Indonesia were the best examples and by following them Pakistan could also grow very fast.

Palwasha Khan, MNA, said politicians were accountable to the people. “If the people have a strong desire to achieve certain objectives for economic growth then even political forces cannot stop them to achieve the targets”, she added.

Earlier Emiel A.Wegline, GIZ Programme Coordinator, Cities Development Initiatives for Asia (CDIA) said that the world urban population in 2009 was estimated at 3.4 billion, whereas Asia's urban population was estimated at 1.72 billion during the same year.

By 2020, of the 4.2 billion world urban population, approximately 2.2 billion would be in Asia adding that $ 100 billion per year would be required for bridging the urban infrastructure investment, he added.