Pakistan's economy has taken a paradigm shift towards a high growth path. The high growth rate achieved by Pakistan in GDP, revenue, exports and other macroeconomic indicators and decline in debt burden are not matched by many countries.
All this has been made possible due to the well thought out economic policies and reforms introduced by the government during this period.
Now the emphasis should be on maintaining a stable policy environment, consistency and the continuity of the reforms.
Director General, Asian Development Bank, Yoshihiro Iwasaki, stated this in a meeting with Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz here on Tuesday.
The Minister and Iwasaki discussed suggestions for 'Path Breaking' economic initiatives so as to sustain a higher growth rate and achieve better distribution of income.
The Bank will focus to provide financial and technical support in prioritised areas of infrastructure development, uplift of rural sector, urban renewal and capacity building programme for skill enhancement of rural and urban population.
The Minister was told that ADB rural sector uplift programme would be mainly based on six pillars ie small scale irrigation projects, rural financing through ZTBL and micro finance programmes, market reforms with more involvement of private sector, diversification of rural economy and research and development programme in agriculture.
The Bank indicated that it is ready to grant $10 million for the R&D projects. The sixth pillar of policy, suggested by ADB, was adoption of a holistic approach of rural area development with main focus on development of low income areas.
In such areas efforts would be made to develop agro-based industry and areas of social sectors which can support agriculture development and contribute in the overall development of the area. A regional approach will be adopted in this context, said Iwasaki.
Referring to ADB's capacity building programmes, Iwasaki said plans would be adopted to increase productivity of rural areas' work force. Bank's strategy will be to achieve the targets through modernisation of techniques, skill enhancement, opportunity creation, training and education of work force in rural and semi-urban areas.
In the infrastructure development plans, the Bank would be investing in maintenance of old projects and in the initiation of new ones. It will be focusing on national highways while during past the emphasis was on the provincial side. For this, the bank is working on a strategy with National Highways Authority.
In the ports and shipping sector, plans will be adopted for the rehabilitation of existing ports.
The Minister also discussed possibilities of municipal financing. This included establishment of a municipal financing programme targeting selected tier 1 and tier 2 cities having populations of 1 to 5 million.
Under the programme, ADB will establish a long term and structured funding programme targeting a set of tier 1 and tier 2 municipalities across the country.
The funding programme will be accompanied by a series of support measures focused on financial management, budget re-balancing, incorporation of the private sector in key services, institutional or capacity building and governance and safeguards.
The Minister said Pakistan is in a crucial phase of its economic history. It needs to think differently and take aggressive steps for ensuring sustainable economic growth and realise its full potential.
The Minister appreciated the assistance provided by ADB both in terms of technical assistance and financial support.
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