Daily Times

BHURBAN: Speakers at a dialogue organised by World Bank on Friday urged the government to “correct” former finance minister Ishaq Dar’s economic policies to stabilise the current poor condition of economy.

They also demanded media to highlight economic situation as political.

A 2-day training session was organised by World Bank in Bhurban, Muree, which was attended by media professionals from across the country. The training session was addressed by World Bank Country Director Pakistan Patchumuthu Illangovon, Board of Investment (BOI) Chairman Naeem Zameendar, former Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries (LCCI) president Almas Hyder and renowned economist Sakib Sherani.

While addressing the participants speakers noted that Ishaq Dar had put burden on country’s economy through his policies. They also demanded government to work on emergency basis for making Pakistan an easy country for business and entrepreneurship.

World Bank Pakistan Country Director Patchumuthu Illangovon in his speech said that Pakistan’s current economical situation might take up to 10 years to become stable. Illangovon said that World Bank was focusing on long term reforms for Pakistan’s current economic situation as next 10 years were critical for it for moving towards stable economy. He also urged political stability in this regard.

Illangovan said that Pakistan wanted to attain 8% growth rate but for the purpose it needed mid-term and long-term reforms. In recent days there was drop observed in value of rupee and it still has more capacity to decrease, he said.

He also revealed that World Bank was concerned over increasing imports, decreasing exports and increasing current accounts. He observed that Pakistan needed to stabilise its macro-economy.

The country has lower tax versus GDP ratio than other Asian countries, which should be brought to the required ratio.

BOI Chairman Naeem Zameendar observed that BOI was working on 100-day Reforms Initiative to facilitate business in Pakistan. A committee will also review the targets of the initiatives in supervision of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan in March, he said.

Sakib Sherani in his address said that Pakistan saved up to Rs 15 billion after oil prices decreased in international market. He said that production sector had 58 percent ratio of tax on GDP. Pakistan is now included in the list of 25 countries, which have GDP more than $1 trillion based on purchasing power parity.

Talking about CPEC, Sherani explained that Pakistan could have its own terms and conditions in joint ventures in local raw material and technology but it had failed to do so.

Former president Almas Hyder said that Pakistan stood 147th in terms of starting new businesses which was lowest in the region. Even Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan are facilitating people who wanted to start new business better than Pakistan.

“Our neighbouring country India has seen a massive jump in this sector during the last couple of years but we saw a sharp decline.” He added that in smaller countries like New Zealand, a person can register a new business in just half a day but in Pakistan it took three to four months for registration.

Published in Daily Times, February  23^rd 2018.