The Central Directorate of National Saving (CDNS) has set a target of Rs 1743 billion for the current Fiscal Year 2023-24, to promote the saving culture in the country. This is Rs 443 billion additional than the target of Rs1300 billion for the previous financial year 2022-23, a senior official of CDNS told APP here Thursday. Replying to a question, he said, “The Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) attained the target of issuing Rs 1.48 trillion in fresh bonds in the current fiscal year (2022-23).” “The CDNS has set a reviewed saving target of Rs 1.3 trillion for the current financial year (2022-23) which will promote the savings culture in the country.” Replying to another question, he said the CDNS has set a target of Rs 75 billion in Islamic finance year 2023-24. The aim was to introduce new dimensions in the Islamic finance sector. He informed that CDNS had reviewed and set a target of Rs 60 billion in the fiscal year (2022-23) for Islamic investment to introduce the new products in the market. “Islamic finance has a very important role in the global financial sector at this time, and a large part of the economy of many major countries currently includes Islamic finance,” The senior official said, “Work on Islamic finance is still needed in Pakistan.” He said that at present, work was being done on institutional reforms in CDNS and new reforms and innovations were being introduced.” He said, “At this time Automated Teller Machine (ATM) has also been introduced in CDNS which will provide enough facilities to the users.” The official said, “CDNS will now provide facilities to its customers as a complete bank.” Replying to a question, he said, “The CDNS has digitized National Savings Certificates (NSCs) for the convenience of consumers and to modernize the institutional process.” He said the CDNS and Central Depository Company of Pakistan Limited (CDCP) signed an agreement to start a pilot project to digitize and dematerialize the NSCs last week. The official said that this would increase investment in National Savings and increase consumers’ confidence, adding that the agreement between National Savings and CDCP was a part of the automation and digitization of the institution.