Pakistan attained macroeconomic stability in a year: PM Shehbaz

DUBAI: Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said that Pakistan has attained macroeconomic stability in the past year with the assistance of the International Monetary Fund programme (IMF).

Speaking to investors and business leaders in Pakistan in Dubai, PM Shehbaz said that the macroeconomic underpinnings of the country’s economy have steadily improved over the past year, with January’s inflation rate of 2.4% and the month-to-month policy rate of the bank at 12%.He clarified that exports had increased from the previous year and that foreign remittances had reached a record three billion dollars.

The prime minister, who is on a two-day official to United Arab Emirates (UAE) to participate in the World Governments Summit (WGS) in Dubai, said the country would have to overcome tough economic challenges, adding the government is moving in the right direction with the goal to achieve economic growth.

UAE, Saudi Arabia’s collaboration to extract mineral resources

“Our efforts are focused on some key areas including mining and minerals,” he remarked. Pakistan is working together with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to extract its immense mineral resources, he continued.

The prime minister expressed regret over the lack of progress in the mining industry to fully utilize the nation’s trillion-dollar mineral resources.

He claimed that information technology is another crucial sector and that the nation might revive its economy if young people were properly trained in this subject.

Pakistan’s 60 percent population was 15-30 years old, PM Shehbaz said and added that the country is endowed with immense resources in the agriculture sector but in the last many decades per acre yield remained marginal as modern techniques and technology were not introduced to promote crop production.

“Many countries moved ahead of Pakistan in the production of rice, sugar, cotton and wheat and we lagged behind our neighbouring countries.”

He informed that the government was funding a programme to send 1000 fresh agri graduates for training to China in various fields related to agriculture.

He expressed hoped that after return from China these students would be well equipped with modern knowledge to assist the country in increasing its agriculture production.

He stressed that country needed to convert its agriculture production into value added products to gain better economic growth.

“We needed to focus with complete dedication and commitment so we can move forward with speed to gain results for the economy,” he said adding team work was needed to transform society in every walk of life.

He assured that the government would include suggestions of the business leaders in its economic programme.