ISLAMABAD - President Asif Ali Zardari said on Tuesday that the government had worked out a comprehensive economic plan of attaining self-reliance in different sectors that could generate high economic growth. Highlighting the government's economic priorities, the President told the visiting team of International Monetary Fund headed by Masood Ahmad, Director for Middle East and Central Asia here at the President House, that the government had adopted the way to achieve self-sufficiency in energy sector and produce enough edible oils to reduce the import bill. He said that the government was focusing on agriculture sector to bring down the ever-increasing import bill of the country that was putting extra pressure on the country's balance of payment. The government was also working on enhancing the production of edible oil and exploring the possibilities of producing ethanol to help cut down its import. The leader of delegation Masood Ahmad apprised the President of the IMF programme, which he said was in fact Pakistan's own home grown programme. The IMF delegation included Juan Carlos Di Tata, Deputy Director Middle East, Dr Jaffer Mojarrad, Executive Director, and Paul Ross, Senior Resident Representative in Pakistan. The Pakistan side included Shaukat Tarin, Advisor to Prime Minister for Finance, M. Salman Faruqui, Secretary General to President, Dr Shamshad Akhtar, Governor State Bank, Mrs Hina Rabbani Khar, Minister of State for Fiance and Economic Affairs, Dr Waqar Masood Khan, Secretary Finance. Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani apprised the visiting IMF team that the government was committed to economic well-being of the people through infrastructure development and increasing economic opportunities. "Government's approach to address problems like, poverty, limited access to public services, and extremism was through a combination of administrative, political and security measures," the PM elucidated. He underlined that economic development was a vitally important component in the long-term perspective. The IMF team suggested that the government should also concentrate on increasing the tax-to-GDP ratio that could also help creating fiscal space by achieving additional revenue. Meanwhile, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission and Federal Minister, Sardar Aseff Ahmad Ali has said that the economy suffered from the sins of last eight years of economic mismanagement. "The economy was rendered rudderless and has now been chartered to a certain destination although now we are left to take the bitter pills of IMF," the Minister mentioned. He said there had to be an overarching human aspect to the economic recovery of Pakistan keeping a realistic view of things to avoid an unmanageable burden on the people. We had to devise a realistic and sustainable policy. The government was determined to provide food security and a safety net to millions of people through its Benazir's Income Support Programme, Aseff stated. Instead of a consumer economy, which had left the economy in a shambles, we needed to focus on agriculture and the rural community to help bail out Pakistan, he said, adding that many more dams and power plants would be built to put an end to load-shedding. He said that ample amount of funds had been provided to the current Public Sector Development Programme that would generate economic activity and curtail poverty in the country. Earlier, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance, Shaukat Tarin gave an overview of the economic situation and highlighted the 9-point agenda of the government for fast track recovery. He also pointed out that poverty had gone up to 28 per cent from the previous 23 per cent and the government was considering different options to alleviate this striking issue. Tarin also told the seminar that the government was eying on bringing down the inflation ratio to 9 per cent to lessen burden on the consumers. The government had already started tightening the monetary policy to attack the inflation issue. Speaking at the seminar, Governor State Bank, Dr Shamshad Akhtar said that the banking system was very much intact and showed resilience to withstand shocks. The IMF team head, Masood Ahmad suggested a calibrated response against a deep and a gradually recovering global downturn. A Seminar on the Global Financial Crises organized jointly by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics and International Monetary Fund was held here at the Planning Commission in Islamabad. The seminar discussed the global financial crisis and its implications for emerging market countries and also Pakistan's response to the global financial crisis.