ISLAMABAD - Economic experts at a conference here on” Wednesday said that the country’s economy was performing well, however stressed that the benefits must reaches to the common people at grassroots level.
The two-days national conference on “Roadmap for Economic Growth of Pakistan” was organized by Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) in collaboration with Hanns Seidel Foundation, with an aim to discuss different issues and challenges being faced the national economy. Economic experts from different organizations gathered on the occasion to take stock of current state of economy, analyze the underlaying reasons for lake of growth and chart a road map for economic growth. Speaking on the occasion, Vice Chancellor Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Dr. Asad Zaman said that there were some soft constraints which were hindering the economic growth.
He said that coordinated progress was required in many fronts including energy, security, industry, technology, exports and investment to pull out the country from prevailing economic crisis and put it on the track of sustainable development.
Only visions and ideas are not sufficient for economic development and undue reliance on experts theories and lake of self-confidence was the major obstacle in economic growth, he added.
He urged the government for enhancing its expenditures on education, health, infrastructure for improving the human development index by introducing the cheap and effective interventions.
Asad Zaman said that there were sufficient food reserves available to feed the people across the glob but people use to spent their money on luxuries rather buying the nutrient filled diet. Addressing the conference Dr. Imran Sharif, Chairman Department of Economics, Bahauddin Zakariya University highlighted the economic performance during recent past.
He informed that Pakistan’s economy was 26th largest economy in terms of purchasing power and rapidly growing economy and which would become the 21 largest economy of world.
He informed that GDP growth accelerated to 4 percent during last fiscal where as agri-sector grew by 2.1 percent besides significant progress in other financial indicators. He called for enhancing investments on human resource capital for improving the human development index of the country to achieve the millennium development goals. Speaking on the occasion President IPRI, Sohail Amin urged for encouraging the small and medium enterprises which was the back bone of any economy.
He said that SMEs have huge potential as they can employ bulk of work force from significant business setups and make substantial contribution in GDP.