Islamabad
\nPrime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formally unveiled the National Eco\u00adnomic Transforma\u00adtion Plan 2024-29 on Tuesday called \u201cUraan Pakistan: Homegrown National Economic Plan\u201d, with the promise to revive the country\u2019s economy.
\nThe five-year plan aims to address key economic challenges thro\u00adugh a targeted framework called the \u201cFive Es\u201d \u2014 Exports; E-Pakis\u00adtan; Equity and Empo\u00adwerment; Environment, Food and Water Security; and Energy and Infrastructure.
\nIn April, PM Shehbaz had called for the creation of a comprehensive five-year strategy to double the country\u2019s exports and underscored the importance of a collaborative approach, asking the Min\u00adis\u00adtry of Trade to devise the export strategy in consultation with successful entrepreneurs and stakeholders.
\nThe ceremony to announce the plan was held in Islamabad today, with speeches by the prime minister, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar.
\nAddressing the event, PM Shehbaz commended the presentations by the aforementioned ministers and said, \u201cThe crux is that in the last nine months, we negotiated huge challenges [and] difficulties and through untiring efforts of the federal and provincial governments and our partners in prosperity and progress, we have been able to achieve macroeconomic stability.
\n\u201cBut this is just the beginning of a long journey which would entail sacrifice, blood and sweat to achieve economic growth and find our lost place among nations,\u201d he added.
\nThe premier said achieving growth required everyone to come together to work and march forward with \u201cunity of thought and action\u201d.
\nThe prime minister explained the challenges his government faced on the economic front when it came into power and said the country was forced to go for another programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
\nHe said it was a moment to ponder why the country had to resort to another IMF bailout, pointing out losses of state-owned enterprises, the circular debt, and corruption.
\nOutlining how growth would be achieved for the economy, the prime minister said that inputs would have to be made cheaper, investment would have to be encouraged, and import curbs would have to be removed to encourage competition, efficiency, and export-led growth.
\n\u201cExport-led growth is the ultimate saviour of Pakistan. You need to earn dollars that is only possible through exports,\u201d he said, adding that the same was the central pivot for the new reform package as well.
\nThe premier also stressed the need to promote and expand the digital and technology sectors, particularly the use and adoption of artificial intelligence.
\nPM Shehbaz went on to say there was a need to create political harmony to forward privatisation efforts to prevent losses. He said there was a need to reduce inefficiency in state-owned enterprises, pointing towards unsuccessful efforts to privatise the national carrier.
\n\u201cWe faced a setback in PIA\u2019s privatisation. Facts should be accepted. There is no doubt our team made full efforts and we are doing so again,\u201d he said.
\nThe premier said the government would have to aim for an annual investment target of $10 billion, adding that this was \u201ceasier said than done\u201d. He said foreign investment was only possible through facilitating local investment first, and that measures were being taken in this regard.<\/p>\n
Long-term prosperity warrants homegrown solutions: Aurangzeb
\nMeanwhile, the finance minister recapped \u201cthe significant macroeconomic progress made\u201d in the last 12-14 months.
\n\u201cWe have to move towards growth, but it has to be sustainable growth, we cannot continue to be in boom and bust cycles,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cBecause we\u2019ve been an import-based economy, as soon as we go above four per cent, we get into a balance of payment problems, then we run back to the institution and say: \u2018this will be the last fund programme\u2019.
\n\u201cWe need to move towards growth, under the leadership of PM Shehbaz, but on the back of fundamental reforms which have remained elusive for us and are imperative for sustained growth.\u201d
\nHe said that the journey towards long-term prosperity warranted homegrown solutions, which is why PM Shehbaz established the Homegrown Reform Economic Committee back in May. \u201cThat committee extensively reviewed national economic plans, including the 13th five-year plan prepared by the Ministry of Planning and duly approved by National Economic Council and the economic manifestos of various political parties.\u201d
\nAurangzeb explained the three main pillars of the plan: stimulating private investment, which was key to getting more jobs, higher incomes and a low cost of living through a more competitive economy.
\nHe emphasised that implementation of the measures was key to the plan, not just planning. The minister also noted that under Manmohan Singh as premier, India progressed but Pakistan could not do so in the comparable timeframe.
\nThe finance minister said the second pillar of the economy was stimulating exports, a key mechanism to drive productivity growth, and the third was optimising public finances, which was central to stability and sustained growth.
\n\u201cThere is going to be a separate tax policy unit which is in the process of being created, which will independently report to the Ministry of Finance. So we\u2019re separating policy from collection.
\n\u201cThis tax policy unit will be managed by people of the private and public sectors so that we can implement policy continuity. Tax leakages will be plugged through the use of data analytics, and the privatisation process will be accelerated.\u201d
\nExplaining the deliverables of the plan, he said they were achieving a sustainable GDP growth of 6pc by 2028, creating one million additional jobs annually, securing additional $10bn private investment per year and hitting an export target of $60bn by FY2028.
\nAurangzeb emphasised that there was \u201cno dearth of policy prescriptions in Pakistan; we have known the what and why for the longest time, we just don\u2019t do it. This time round the plan is accompanied by a comprehensive implementation mechanism.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formally unveiled the National Eco\u00adnomic Transforma\u00adtion Plan 2024-29 on Tuesday called \u201cUraan Pakistan: Homegrown National Economic Plan\u201d, with the promise to revive the country\u2019s economy. The five-year plan aims to address key economic challenges thro\u00adugh a targeted framework called the \u201cFive Es\u201d \u2014 Exports; E-Pakis\u00adtan; Equity and Empo\u00adwerment; Environment, Food …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":75017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75026,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75003\/revisions\/75026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}