Pakistan has embarked on path of high growth economy: PM Nawaz sharif

Lahore: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday said Pakistan has embarked on the path of high growth economy and was heading towards a bright future for its people.

Addressing the second international Pakistan Investors Conference here, the Prime Minister said his government had achieved most of the objectives in the past two and a half years as was evident from the overwhelming support it got in the recently concluded local bodies polls, where the people endorsed the PML-N’s policies.

Besides the large number of foreign and local investors, the event, organized by the Board of Investment, was attended by Minister for Water & Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Minister of State and Chairman Board of Investment Miftah Ismaeel.

The Prime Minister gave an overview of the achievements of his government, since he took over and said not only the country’s economy was on a strong footing, but also it was successfully meeting the challenge of extremism, terrorism and the chronic energy shortages.

He said difficult decisions on vital national matters were now being taken with consensus and the country’s democratic institutions would continue to get stronger in the times ahead.

Sharif said huge investment was pouring in the energy sector and several new projects were in the pipeline that would be commissioned soon.  The government, he said, also settled the Rs 480 billion circular debt issue soon after coming into power.

The prime minister mentioned the projects in solar, wind and coal, besides the three new power generation plants that would be run with imported Liquified Natural Gas. He also mentioned the fourth extension of the Tarbela upgradation project, besides the on-going work on Dasu Hydropower project and said country’s energy sector was growing robust with each passing day.

He said the projects would enable the country to meet its energy needs for the next decade and expressed his optimism that loadshedding would end by the year 2017. “Our focus is not just on ending load-shedding in Pakistan for once. We are aiming at laying the foundations of a robust energy sector that will meet the country’s needs for the next two decades.”

Nawaz Sharif said the government had also increased the well-head price for the oil and gas exploratory companies, while new terminals for LNG have been set up. He mentioned the inking of the two billion dollar agreement with Russia for the construction of the North South gas pipeline that would carry 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas daily. He said another gas line was being built from Gwadar to Nawabshah and more gas was being imported to meet the requirements of country’s vibrant industrial sectors. “We are determined to produce and import more gas to fully meet the demand for gas in the country,” he said.

The Prime Minister said the government had also slashed its expenses by 30 per cent, expenses of the Prime Minister’s Office cut by 40 percent, Sales tax increased from 16 to 17 percent, have helped us cut our fiscal deficit from 8.8% to around 5% in just two years, leading the inflation to reduce and interest rates were at their unprecedented historically low levels.

He said the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals were pointing in the right direction.  He said Pakistan’s economic turnaround has been duly noticed and acknowledged by credit rating agencies -Standard & Poor, Moody and Fitch, and respected publications like Forbes and the Economist. “Our macroeconomic fundamentals are pointing in the right direction. We are ready to get high levels of investments from domestic and foreign sources,” he said.

The Prime Minister said “I would like to emphasize that we have just begun. We have plans to make this great nation into a high growth economy in the next few years. We have only just laid the foundation for it,” the Prime Minister said and termed it just the beginning as the nation had embarked on a path of progress and prosperity. He said the operation Zarb-e-Azb was progressing successfully and reiterated his resolve to rid the country of the cancer of extremism and terrorism.”Our nation has made a choice and we will not allow the cancer of extremism to infect the fabric of our society. Our desire is to have both peace and security within our borders and outside our borders.” He said Pakistan desired good neighbourly relations and wanted increased regional trade and investment. In this regard, he also mentioned the CASA 1000 and TAPI gas projects.

He said the government’s programme was built around four E’s – Elimination of Extremism and Terrorism, Economic development, Ensuring supply of Energy, and enabling the society access to Education and Health.”Our fundamental principle in running the government and achieving these goals has been to observe the highest standards of probity, fairness and transparency.”

The Prime Minister said the goal of his government was to have a progressive society where its citizens get quality healthcare, education and all facilities of life. He said Pakistani nation was forward looking and enterprising and would soon attain a higher place in the comity of nations.

The Prime Minister said the government was spending Rs 100 billion annually in monthly stipends to more than 5 million poorest of the poor women as part of its income support programme.”We are also giving vocational training to poor qualified students to enable them to earn a dignified living.” He spoke about the loans available to the needy students for higher education and for starting their own business ventures.

He said the country would soon have a highly improved road  linkage, enabling people to drive in few hours from Lahore to Karachi, ample availability of electricity and gas, high speed internet, efficient goods transportation systems.

He said 25 industrial zones would be established along the three routes of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor and pointed that China was investing US 46 billion in various sectors of the country.  He said the CPEC, when completed would ensure seamless connectivity between China, South Asia and Central Asia. “We expect that the increased trade on this corridor will render our Gwadar port one of the busiest in the region, and will herald a new dawn of development for whole of Balochistan.”

The Prime Minister said government would extend all possible assistance in business enterprise in Pakistan.