‘Pakistan to be among five largest world economies by end century’

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance Asad Umar has said that Pakistan would be among the five largest economies of the world by the end of this century.

He said that India’s decision to slap 200 percent duty on Pakistani products and withdrawal of the Most Favored Nations (MFN) status was tantamount to harming New Delhi’s economy more instead of causing any loss to Pakistan.

He also said that the differences with the IMF were narrowing down and discussions at technical levels were continuing with the Fund staff. “When we get closer to evolving an agreement, the IMF mission will be invited for finalising the talks,” Federal Minister for Finance Asad Umar said while talking to reporters after chairing the third ACCA’s Pakistan Leadership Conversation (PLC) here on Thursday.

When the minister was asked to comment on India’s move in the aftermath of Pulwama attack, the minister said that the steps taken by India demonstrated its immaturity that would become more harmful for its own economy.

The minister said that Pakistan would not face any loss in the wake of the recent steps taken by India where they slapped 200 percent duty on Pakistani products. To another query about the possibility of IMF mission visiting for striking a staff levelagreement, the minister said that Pakistani authorities and the IMF were continuously holding technical level talks and they interacted with each other this week and were expected to establish contacts next week as well.

When asked about ongoing meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Paris, the minister hoped that it would give satisfactory report on Pakistan. He said the FATF would share its outcome on Friday (today).

Earlier, in his address, the minister recalled that he had made his first presentation on leadership in 21st Century after joining the corporate world and challenges facing the company could replicate to any society or country as a whole. The biggest challenge for Pakistan, he said, was the existing gap between potential and reality of the country. “Pakistan’s potential is staggering while it’s far from reality,” he said and added that reality was not reflecting the real potential of Pakistan.

It is a challenge for visionary leadership to put right people for right job, he further said. Pakistan’s governance structure was highly flawed. He also deplored that kinship on account of clans (Baradari) and political affiliations were considered as criteria for giving jobs but the PTI-led government was working under guidance of Dr Ishrat Hussain to revamp government structures. He said that quality of governance could not be achieved without overhauling the bureaucracy and placing right man for right job.

Counsellor, British High Commission, Islamabad Peter Abbott said on the occasion that the UK became the second largest source of foreign direct investment in Pakistan. He praised that Pakistan improved 11 notches in World Bank’s Doing Business Report and stood at the 136th position in accordance with the latest results. He said the UK supported the WB’s move for undertaking reforms on Doing Business at provincial levels. He said that Shell Company was setting up 100 fuel stations along with the CPEC routes by investing millions of dollars till 2020. He said Unilever was also planning to invest 81 million pounds for expanding its footprint in Pakistan. He said that they wanted to establish people-to-people and business-to-business contacts and the key of economic success depends upon achieving competitiveness and attracting foreign direct investment.