Dar promises policies to sustain economic growth

WASHINGTON—The coalition government will strive for growth in agriculture and manufacturing sectors for Pakistan’s sustainable economic progress, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said Saturday evening, while also pledging to facilitate foreign investment and use all available resources to meet fast-expanding energy requirements.
He told a gathering of Pakistani Americans and US officials at the Pakistani embassy that the new government would soon unveil its energy policy and endeavor to bring fiscal and monetary discipline to improve the overall state of the national economy.
Dar, who is in Washington for World Bank-IMF annual spring meetings, also affirmed commitment to autonomy for the State Bank of Pakistan. He felt it is essential to convert the Federal Bureau of Statistics into an autonomous body to enhance its credibility.
“We have to be open and transparent and the government will be ready to listen to independent economists about how they view the economy and what corrective steps need to be taken.
“We are working to reduce fiscal deficit, reduce government borrowing from the central bank and correct other macro economic indicators we have already started damage controlling the situation including curbing the inflation and want to achieve maximum targets before the closing of this financial year.
“We are hopeful that we will reverse the negative trend and have a year of consolidation next year,” he said while briefly touching on negative indicators, which he ascribed partly to external shocks in the form of soaring oil prices and mismanagement by the previous government during the last year.
On fulfilling energy requirements, he said, the government will try to make use of all sources including water and coal and go for energy conservation as well. “We will encourage private sector to invest in energy projects,” he said.
The finance minister favored looking into the possibility of setting up another nuclear power plant. He described the coalition government as the best possible political dispensation for the country and was confident that democratic government would bring much-needed political stability.
“The coalition government of the two mainstream and other parties will work very well and you can expect political stability in the years to come,” he said. Pakistan, he said, needs a very strong parliamentary system.Dar assured the foreign entrepreneurs that their investment would be protected and the government would continue the foreign direct investment policies which it had introduced the 1990s and which were also sustained by the last government. “There will be no reversals, no derailment – we will go for consistency and improvement.” He said the growth path followed by the former regime was not sustainable but observed the baseline of the economy is resilient. “We’ve to work hard in line with international trends and focus on maximizing agricultural output through introduction of proper incentives, provision of credit and in-time announcement of support prices to attain self-sufficiency in food and head off any wheat crisis in future.”
Dar, who is the first minister of the new coalition government to visit Washington after its inception last month, said the international financial institutions have expressed their solidarity with the government as it moves ahead to achieve economic targets.
Deputy Chief of Mission Muahmmad Aslam Khan welcomed the Finance Minister and introduced members of his delegation including State Bank Governor, Finance Secretary and Special Secretary to the Finance Ministry.
Earlier, he met with Executive Vice President of International Finance Corporation, Lars Thunell at the World Bank and on the sidelines of the moot met with finance ministers of China, Afghanistan, Iran and development minister of Germany and discussed economic relations.

—Agencies