ISLAMABAD: Minister of Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal says peace, stability and reforms are pre-requisite for development in the country.
In an article published on Sunday, the Minister said Pakistan has entered into the economic stabilization phase due to prudent policies introduced by PML (N) Government after coming into power.
He said Pakistan’s economy was literally in Intensive Care Unit when PML (N) assumed the charge of government because all economic indicators were showing sharp downward trends. He pointed out that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his team had the first and formidable challenge to stop the economic downslide.
Ahsan Iqbal said in a short period of two years, by the grace of Almighty, the present government successfully managed to arrest the negative slide in economy by pushing it into stabilization phase. He said enormous challenges came in the way of achieving economic stabilization when terrorism was raging fire across the country and law and order situation was not up to the mark. He said this great achievement would not be possible if the Government had not followed prudent policies and good governance despite odds of various sorts. He said now the economy of the country is in take-off phase. However, he said there is a need to harmonize peace, stability and reforms for rapid development.
Ahsan Iqbal said the Government has broken the barrier of four percent growth rate after six years and added that if we continue to follow path of peace, stability and reform we can achieve seven percent rate by 2018. Likewise, he said we need to cross one hundred fifty billion dollars mark in exports by 2025 if we have to translate our dreams into reality. He said to do so, we need to overcome petty differences and think positive about our future.
The Minister pointed out that relations with China has now transformed into geo-economic partnership after launching of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project and added that country is poised to benefit enormously from forty-six billion dollars Chinese investment. NNI
