Targeted efforts ensured economic turnaround: minister

LAHORE: The government’s unflagging pursuit towards achieving economic independence was finally paying off, evident from the fact that World Economic Forum (WEF) has ranked Pakistan ahead of India in terms of emerging economies of the world, a minister said on Saturday.

The WEF ranked India at 62nd position in the list of emerging economies, while China and Pakistan were ranked at 26th and 47th position respectively.

“We targeted four areas including energy, extremism, economy and education and accomplished considerable success,” Ahsan Iqbal, federal minister for interior, planning, development, and reforms said after inaugurating a National Database and Registration Authority facilitation desk at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).

“Before 2013, the country’s economic health was terrible. It was considered the most dangerous place in the world due to terrorism and law and order issues. Over 20-hour long load-shedding had almost put an end to industrial activities.”

Iqbal said the people were fleeing Karachi because of extortion and target killing, singing national anthem and hoisting Pakistan’s flag was a crime in Balochistan before 2013.

“Economy was stagnant at 3 percent, while International Monetary Fund (IMF) had predicted Pakistan would go bankrupt by 2014,” the minister said.

He said the gross domestic product (GDP) growth reached to 5.3 percent in the previous year, while it was expected to be around 6 percent by the end of current year.

“During the incumbent regime’s tenure around 11,000 MWs were added into the national grid, while investment in infrastructure development reached Rs.413 billion,” Iqbal said.

He said China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was a game changer and playing a significant role in economic development of Pakistan.

“The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a national agenda and has been put into implementation in record time due to total commitment of both Pakistani and Chinese leadership,” he

said expressing satisfaction over the progress of the projects.

Malik Tahir Javaid, the president of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said development and peace are the two of the major concerns of businesses.

“Development requires the removal of major reasons of unfreedom, which include poverty and tyranny, poor economic opportunities and systematic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities and intolerance or overactivity of repressive states,” he said.