ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is looking for a Pak-China economic corridor-like package from Japan as it will benefit the Japanese investors greatly. The Japanese investors should take optimum benefits of the investment-friendly policies and opportunities in various sectors of economy in Pakistan.
Elaborating his point, Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar said that Pak-China economic corridor was not going to benefit China and Pakistan alone, but it would bring revolutionary changes in the entire region – to the Central Asian states, to India, to Afghanistan, and other neighboring countries.
Talking to leading economic journal Nikkei Asian Review during an interview, Dar said that even Japan won’t have to go to the Gulf to get things done if this economic corridor from Kashgar to Gwadar is activated.
Replying to a question about economic growth projections of Pakistan, the minister said that the economic position of Pakistan was fairly unstable [prior to the 2013 general election] and that’s why many international institutions stopped working with Pakistan.
But now the political party headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif – the Pakistan Muslim League – had a very clear road map of how to make an economic recovery, he added. “Our fiscal year starts July 1. Soon after we took the oath [of office] in June 2013, we [pursued] very strong structural reforms to fix the economy. They’re always painful, but I’m glad to share with you that all of our macroeconomic indicators have shown very good performance”, he told the Japan’s Economic daily.
“We had almost an average [gross domestic product growth rate] of 3pc in the [previous] five years. But we pushed for over 4pc in our very first year. [We resolved] to make a full attempt to have GDP growth of 4pc, and the next year 5pc, the third year 6pc and the fourth year 7pc.
So our projected GDP growth is 7pc in the 2017 to 2018 fiscal year”.
Meanwhile, Dar called on Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso here on Thursday where both the leaders discussed matters of mutual interest, including cooperation in the field of economy, trade and investment and agreed to increase economic cooperation between the two countries.
Dar highlighted the economic reforms undertaken by the government since June 2013 and expressed his satisfaction over the performance of the economy saying that “it had taken the right direction”.
He apprised Aso, who is also Japan’s Finance Minister, of the successful completion of five reviews by the IMF under the Extended Fund Facility Program and expressed optimism of completion of sixth review by February.
He dilated upon some of the challenges still facing the economy including shortfall in electricity generation, requirements of rehabilitation of TDPs and countering the militants.
He informed Aso that there was considerable interest in electricity generation using coal and LNG.
He further stated that Mitsubishi had expressed interest in energy projects in Pakistan provided financing from Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) was made available.
Meanwhile, Ishaq Dar also met Ijima, Vice President of Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) at its Headquarters Thursday and discussed with him possibility of financing Japanese companies that are interested in investing in Pakistan.
He informed that his visit would have been incomplete without a meeting at JBIC and dilated upon the economic performance of the government in past 19 months, including five successful IMF reviews under the Extended Fund Facility Programme.
