Daily Times

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar said on Wednesday that Pakistan has huge potential to join G-20 countries through structural reforms in the country’s economy.

The government is fully committed to structural reforms in the country’s economy by capital market and corporate sector regulation for sustainable economic development, he said.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar said this while addressing the Ground Breaking Ceremony of the Head Office Building of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), along with Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb here.

Deputy Prime Minister said today is a very special day on the occasion of laying the foundation stone of Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). “We have a huge journey for evolving capital market and corporate sector reforms in the economy from 2013 to 2017 in the country.”

He said that SECP ‘s energetic and committed team in 2013 fully supported the government vision and executed the government reform vision for SECP and regulation of the corporate sector.

Ishaq Dar said that in the previous government of PML-N, “We have had a huge challenge and resistance faced for establishing an integrated Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) in the country and the government was successful and established the PSX which was a huge achievement.”

He said that after the new integrated stock exchange, the PSX has achieved the status of the fist most efficient stock exchange of South Asia and 5th in the world.

Deputy Prime Minister said that bilateral trade, structural reforms and Foreign Direct Investment are top priorities of the government for achieving these goals,”we need to take on board all stakeholders.”

Meanwhile, he rejected the way of conventional diplomacy and said that this is the time of economic diplomacy through which, “We can explore new potential markets for our exports.”

Dar said that Pakistan is a liquidity-shortened country but the country has an abundance of tested and certified natural reservoirs of minerals, which have a proven cost of $ 10,000 billion.

Historically Pakistan has faced the twin deficits in the shape of both fiscal and foreign account and these are manageable through comprehensive planning and economic reforms.

He said that, “We need to streamline these natural recourses and also explore it for the sustainable economic development in the country.”

He said that Pakistan has a bright future and in 2017, “we worked on economic reforms and the country’s economy evolved as 24th biggest economy of the world, which is again down in the ranking of 48th.”

Dar said that during our government in 2017, Pakistan’s economic indicators portrayed good by the international rating agencies as we have record foreign exchange reserves and food inflation have been on 2 %.

Ishaq Dar said that Ease of Doing Business (EODB) is necessary for bringing the foreign direct investment to the country and for this SIFC’s role is pivotal.