PM Shehbaz shares 5-year economic uplift programme with ministries

Prime Minister  Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday shared his five-year economic roadmap with ministries and urged the members of the federal cabinet to immediately commence work towards achieving the targets set in the plan.

The prime minister made the remarks while chairing a meeting of the federal cabinet in Islamabad.

Expressing his firm resolve to transform the country’s economic landscape, the PM said that he had shared broad parameters of a five-year plan with all the ministries, specifying their targets. He maintained that the progress of the ministries on these targets would also be reviewed regularly.

The premier said: “We have to cut our expenditures and take the country towards self-reliance.”

Expressing his determination to uplift various sectors such as agriculture and Information Technology, the country’s chief executive resolved to take the country on the growth trajectory and create employment opportunities, Radio Pakistan reported.

The PM was confident that the Ministry of Commerce would take the requisite steps to double the country's exports before the expiry of the five-year tenure of the current government.

Speaking on the occasion, the premier warned of strict action against illegal trade, power theft, and other leakages.

He said a programme has been chalked out for the complete digitalisation of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), adding that consultants would be hired by next month for this purpose.

Minister for Finance and Revenue Muhammad Aurangzeb has confirmed that the federal government will hold a meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on April 14 and 15 in Washington for the new loan programme.

Addressing journalists during his visit to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) in Karachi a day earlier, Aurangzeb said features of the new programme will be discussed during the meeting, while detailed talks would be held in Pakistan.

He also reiterated the government's plans to enter a major programme with the global lender; whereas, the microeconomic stability would also continue with the Fund.

PM Shehbaz had on March 21 signalled that the new IMF programme was likely to be continued for three years.

"New tranche of loan is likely to be received from the IMF in a few days, however, we would need another programme," he had said while addressing a session of the Special Investment Facilitation Council's (SIFC) apex committee attended by civil-military leadership.