Battling Covid-19: Pakistan’s performance better than other countries: minister

LAHORE:Pakistan’s performance battling the Covid-19 epidemic was much better than other countries as it not only demonstrated a better strategy than other countries, but economic indicators have also been better than other countries.

Punjab Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht addressing the fourth edition of Pakistan Leadership Conversation (PLC 2022) PLC centered on the theme “Rethinking our world: Sustainable growth for Pakistan” organised by the Association of Chartered Certified Accounts (ACCA) on subject “Talent, Technology and Transformation” said that the smart lockdown policy proved effective in controlling the spread of the epidemic. There has also been a relative decline in mortality due to the proportion of patients in hospitals and the proportion of epidemic protection facilities.

The Ehsas programme facilitated the working class while the business class took advantage of the special measures taken by the State Bank of Pakistan. He observed that the credit of the revival of business and economy to keep afloat goes to the current government.

Hashim said that Covid-19 provide great learning experiences for the government as well as private sector alongside many losses. The Covid-19 provided an opportunity to the government to use technology as flaws of the human resource system were exposed. The healthcare system has improved while small works flourished. The government first time took concrete steps to grow the business.

A relief package of Rs56 billion was introduced in Punjab to reduce provincial revenue. The tax rate on more than 20 services was reduced from 16 percent to 5 percent while special discounts were given to construction services. He mentioned that a sustainable model of emergency investment was developed for the preparation of the budget in view of Covid-19 and Covid centric budget was presented.

The minister disclosed that the government also got an opportunity to know what kind of human resources were required to improve the performance of different institutions while working with one-third of the Punjab Workforce during Covid-19. Further, the areas were identified where with the shortage of human resources and the shortage was managed with the use of technology.

Hashim said that the Punjab government three years ago introduced a mobile application called E-pay for tax collection for the convenience of common man which was very successful as Rs70 billion was collected so far through the application. He observed that use of E-pay type application improved governance of the government. In the model of sustainable development, economic growth depends on increasing exports in which technology is of key importance, he added. He announced the establishment of federal-style special technology zones in Punjab during the leadership conversation.