Ahsan Iqbal calls for collective efforts to achieve national development

ISLAMABAD: Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal stressed the need for making collective efforts to put the country on a consistent path of progress and development, saying it was high time to take all Pakistanis along in achieving the national goals.

“The time has come to bring all Pakistanis forward and give them an opportunity to play a role in the development of the country,” he said while addressing a two-day conference titled “Leaders in Islamabad Business Summit-2023,”.

He was of the view to extend all possible support to the business companies earning dollars and contributing to build the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

The minister said this year, the country faced worst impacts of global climate change, and now the incumbent government was working to overcome the issues of water and food security by switching over to smart agriculture system.

Ahsan Iqbal said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a key component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), was a game-changer project for Pakistani besides the entire region of South Asia.

He said around $ 29 billion had been invested in the CPEC-related project in a period of three years.

Ahsan Iqbal regretted that the economic policies and projects faced considerable dent during the tenure of PTI government, which caused serious damage to the national economy and development.

He said it was the PTI regime that scandalized the CPEC-related projects and stopped the economic boom and foreign investment pouring into the country during the last tenure of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government.

He recalled that there was an economic boom during the PML-N’s last tenure, adding in 2017, the ambassadors of developed countries including America, Britain, Japan, Germany and France were showing keen interest to invest in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs), under the CPEC.

The minister said it was unfortunate that Pakistan was marking its 75th anniversary but still far behind in achieving its goals of progress and prosperity, mainly due to inconsistent economic policies.

He said when Pakistan celebrated its 50th anniversary; a government delegation went to Malaysia to review Vision 2020 and “We found that they have learned from Pakistan.”

The planning minister said the PML-N government whenever came into power effectively tackled all the confronted challenges including loads-shedding, economy and security.

In the past, he said Pakistan got a number of chances to become a world-class economic power but missed due to certain reasons, and now there was a ‘football catch’ in the form of CPEC that could not be afforded to drop.

The minister said the incumbent government was working hard to fully revive the CPEC and bring it to its nutrition at the earliest.