ISLAMABAD: Federal Finance Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar has said that revenue collection increased by 60 per cent to Rs 3.112 trillion during the last three years.
The finance minister said this while giving a brief overview of Pakistan’s current economic profile to a delegation led by Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank’s Chief Executive Officer Keiko Honda.
The finance minister said that the forex reserves of the country are at their highest level ever of $23 billion. Economic growth of 4.71% is the highest in the last eight years, he said, adding that international rating institutions have recognised these achievements and improved the country’s credit rating.
The minister said the government is completely focused on growth and all its policies are geared towards that objective. A number of measures have been included in the budget for 2016-17 to encourage exports, agriculture and industry, which are likely to facilitate the government’s endeavour to achieve higher inclusive growth.
Dar also mentioned projects in the energy sector including Dassu and Diamer-Bhasha dams that would help generate electricity and store water for irrigation. He said the government has made a series of reforms in different sectors which have helped attain macro-economic stability. The reforms process he said would continue in the next two years. He said Pakistan considered the World Bank group as its long-time economic partner and cooperation between the two would further grow with this visit by the CEO of MIGA.
Keiko Honda said that MIGA is supporting a number of projects in Pakistan and is deeply interested in expanding the portfolio. She said that it was the first ever visit of a MIGA CEO to Pakistan, which is an indication of the increasing interest of the Agency in Pakistan. She said the agency could consider expanding the scale of its coverage for Pakistan and actively play its role in accordance with the country’s partnership framework that the World Bank Group has committed with the government of Pakistan. Honda said that MIGA is keen to meet and engage with private sector also to raise its profile, to increase awareness of MIGA products and to look for opportunities to facilitate foreign direct investment in Pakistan.
MIGA, as key institution of the World Bank Group, offers Political Risk insurance products. The agency works with investors across manufacturing, services, transportation/logistics, infrastructures as well as power sector.
