ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs and Privatization Dr. Shamshad Akhtar has said that the federal government has adopted a holistic approach to develop a road map to augment the macroeconomic management in the country.
“We will operate really holistically and consistently as a team. This would be an important change that in-charges of all segments would work together,” she said while addressing a press conference.
The minister was flanked by the Caretaker Minister for Commerce and Industry Dr. Gohar Ejaz, the Caretaker Minister for Information and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi and the Caretaker Minister for Energy, Power and Petroleum Muhammad Ali.
The minister said that subcommittees of the cabinet have already been institutionalized including the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC), Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP), Cabinet Committee on Privatization, Cabinet Committee on Energy.
She said they were having full-form intergovernmental discussions with each other and have been making sincere efforts to define a road map for augmenting the macroeconomic management in the country.
She said that the government was reinforcing fiscal stability and fiscal coordination with monetary policy as well as external policy, which she said was the anchor of macroeconomic management.
She said the interim setup wanted to review the economy and for that, they were working to “define the steps to jump-start the economy,” adding that they were making efforts to enhance the social safety net during the period when the structural adjustment reforms programme is implemented.
We would try to enhance the social safety net and more importantly, financial inclusion would be expedited so that SMEs, agriculture sectors and citizens get opportunities for financial empowerment through digitization.
The minister said that State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) were facing issues and had burdened the exchequer, so the government would prepare SOE policy to overcome the issues.
The minister said a Central Monetary Unit would be established with two principal pillars including (1) to help various ministries strengthen the corporate governance of SOEs, and (2) to prepare the entities that are ready to take forward for listing them for privatization.
The minister said that the government wanted to diversify the SOE’s debt burden through the capital market as currently it was solely a burden on the banking sector and even the government also raises debt from the banking sector.
This strategy would also help enhance the depth and breadth of the capital market, she said, adding that the interim setup wanted the government securities to be floated at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) so their maturity is stretched, and the common man can invest in government securities.
Caretaker minister for commerce, Dr Ejaz Gohar said that we need to open markets so that the economic situation can improve. In today’s meeting, it has been decided that inflation should be reduced, and the dollar should be brought down, for which the industry will have to drive the wheel.
Ejaz Gohar said that the industry was closed, and the problem of the supply chain was created due to which inflation also increased and the economic situation also worsened.
He said that the previous government reduced the economic deficit and brought down the imports to $55 billion.
The minister said that we have to make the industries viable and restore the supply chain in which unemployment and inflation will end in the country.
He said that we have to achieve this year’s target of a regular plan to reduce last year’s export deficit.
He said that raw material and energy is an issue which will be resolved soon, and the industry will be taken forward.
He said that in order to bring down the dollar, new markets will be found to accelerate industrial development and trade.
