LAHORE: Minister of State and Board of Investment Chairman Dr Miftah Ismail said that the country will get rid of power crisis by 2017.
While addressing SAFA Conference 2016, organised by Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP), Dr Miftah said China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India Pipeline (TAPI) project will be the game changer in the region. He said that by 2025 country’s middle class population will have reached 100 million people which will be a big market.
Moreover, Pakistan, having 5th largest coal resources, 5th largest copper deposits, can produce 60,000 MW energy, he said, adding, “Likewise we are full of natural resources and have talented human resources and stand as 5th largest middle class in the world.”
Addressing the ceremony finance minister Ishaq Dar congratulated ICAT for arranging successful conference. He said Pakistan has witnessed economic turnaround in last two years. The CPEC will be game changer not only for Pakistan but for this whole region, he added.
Meanwhile, Enrique Blanco Armas, Lead Country Economist of The World Bank in Pakistan said ‘Governments in South Asia are collecting very little revenue, which affects the available fiscal space for priority spending, however, the situation is slowly improving, specially for Pakistan whose revenue has risen from 12.4% in 2011 to 14.4% in 2015.’
