ISLAMABAD: Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said that the government has prepared a future roadmap for next three years to achieve GDP growth as high as 7 percent.
Under the roadmap, measures will be taken to raise the foreign reserves to $30 billion, fix the fiscal deficit below 4 per cent of GDP and keep inflation within single digits, the minister said while addressing the stakeholders of capital market on MSCI reclassification of Pakistan’s Capital Market in the ‘Emerging Markets’ category at the SECP head office.
Ishaq Dar said that it was a historic day and said that the PML-N’s government had achieved most of the targets its targets on the economic front which have been part of its manifesto.
The finance minister said that country would not need the IMF following the upcoming 12th review of its fund. However, he appreciated the IMF’s contribution and assistance towards stabilising Pakistan’s fiscal position. He proclaimed that the country’s foreign reserves would hopefully be boosted to $22 billion by August. He said that Pakistan’s macro-economic indicators have been established and the world had recognised it. In future, the government will focus on achieving high growth and development. He said that Pakistan’s economy had the potential to do extremely well.
Dar said that politics and economics must not be coupled and invited all political parties to join the government in formulating a future economic roadmap for the country. He said the government’s actions over the last three years contributed in improving the country’s security and winning the confidence of its investors. Dar said that there were a lot of pending legislations but the SECP had revamped most of its laws to ensure they were up to date. Another major achievement of the SECP in reforming its legal infrastructure would be the introduction of Companies Bill 2016 that will be introduced in the parliament in near future, he added.
The SECP chairman said that next challenge ahead was the divestment of the stock exchange. He said a committee comprising all stakeholders had been constituted to search for an effective strategic investor for PSX. He hoped that PSX would be able to attract global strategic investors and financial institutions and form technological partnerships to fulfil the objectives of integration and become a major regional investment hub.
