ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Industries and Production, Khusro Bakhtiar said Thursday that the incumbent government had laid a solid foundation of the economy to promote long-term sustainable economic growth. Addressing the launching ceremony of environment-friendly electric motor-bikes here, the federal minister said that the country had to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) only because the foundation of the economy was not laid on solid grounds by the governments in the past. He said, ever since the incumbent government assumed power, it had its main focus on putting the economy on a solid basis. “The country was now on a path of sustainable and quality growth,” he added. He said that the government had to face challenges, however it was successful in consolidating the economy and putting it on the path of growth. The reserves were growing, the current account deficit was manageable whereas the growth rate was recorded at 4 percent and would reach to 5 percent during the ongoing fiscal year. He said the government had announced auto policy to boost the automobile production in the country besides announcing incentives for manufacturing Electric Vehicles (EVs) for the production of environment-friendly vehicles. He said that since ‘Clean and Green Pakistan’ was a priority of the government, it would scale up production of electric vehicles. The launching of electric motorbikes would introduce a new sector in the economy that would ultimately help pace up its growth rate.