7% GDP growth in helped to reduce poverty: Salman
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan’s economic growth rate averaging around seven percent over the last three to four years has resulted in substantial poverty reduction and improvement in standard of living of the people, the Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr. Salaman Shah said Wednesday.
“This will not only enable us to achieve the millennium development goals by 2015 but will also launch the country on a path of modernization, development, international integration and prosperity,” he said. Dr. Salman Shah was speaking at a seminar organized with Mr. Buchanan, co-head of goldman sachs strategic forecasting unit. He said Globalization has arrived in Pakistan. “Attracted by our markets we have significantly large foreign investors coming into our product and services markets.”
“We have created an investment environment that will help Pakistan achieve its full potential. We have now in place a growing economy, a dynamic private sector, a vibrant parliament, a totally free media, an independent judiciary and a reasonably functioning bureaucracy”, he added. Dr. Salman Shah said with a current population of 160 million of which over half is below the age of nineteen, a rapidly growing middle class that is fueling unprecedented growth, Pakistan is rapidly transforming into a major market economy with large scale product, services and labour markets our per capita GDP income has crossed $2,500. He said, “This is a level where the purchasing power of population can sustain large domestic demands for all kinds of modern goods and services”.
“We have the scale and talent to be a world class manufacturing and servicing center of the region, Though we will not be as big as China or India, we will definitely be in the league of Brazil, Indonesia and Russia from amongst the emerging economies,” he said adding: “Our vision is based on ‘not bigger but better’.” The Advisor said effective implementation of liberalization, deregulation and privatization policies is designed to create an enabling environment for Pakistan to benefit from opportunities unleashed by globalization.
“Our second generation reforms arc designed to create effective institutions of a private sector driven competitive market economy.We are establishing a new competition authority, a new statistical authority, reinforcing our security and exchange commission and deepening our capital markets.” He said, “We are demutualizing our stock markets and introducing new systems to ensure transparency of transactions. Our public institutions are being reformed and so is our private sector.” The financial sector is now primarily owned and managed by the private sector, has strong balance sheets and is leading the way in innovation and modernization of the economy, he added.
Dr. Salman Shah said the banking system has to connect the regional economies in tandem with a financial services industry that can channel billions of dollars into the needed infrastructure projects. New Public private partnerships for infrastructure investments are being created. He said the government is developing an industrial strategy for the country that will provide a hassle free environment to industrialists, adding that modern industrial parks, special economic zones and free trade and warehousing zones, with all the requisite infrastructure facilities and communications and connectivity are being created.