Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan, economic adviser to the Ministry of Finance, has assured the poor masses of Pakistan that benefit of growth in economy would start trickling down to them within five years.
He was talking to the audience while presenting his paper on "Pakistan's Economic Future: Challenges and Opportunities", organised by South Asia Forum at a local hotel on Friday.
Dr Ashfaque, who has Doctorate in Economics from the John Hopkins University, USA, was one of the main architects that reinvigorated the country's ailing economy.
He told the audience about the dark days of Pakistan economy when it was at par with the poor African countries of Rwanda and Malawi. "The economic fiasco of the 90s was so appalling that it was termed ' The Lost Decade' by some economists. "The country was on the verge of bankruptcy and it was feared that it would be declared a defaulter. But thanks to the careful planning and disciplined debt management it became possible to salvage the economy and bring it to the present position," he continued.
The advisor enumerated the policies that were adopted to improve macroeconomic environment of the financial scene. "We did it by reducing the "Twin Deficits", keeping the inflation low, building forex reserves, maintaining stability in exchange rate and by consistency and continuity in policies," he explained.
Dr Ashfaque said that initiating such steps as formulating fiscal responsibility and debt limitation law, fiscal transparency, tax reforms, agricultural reforms, privatisation, capital market reforms and industry and investment reforms revived the economy.
He said, "GDP growth in 1999-2000 was 3.9 percent, while it was 8.4 percent in 2004-05, and showed the significant improvement. Foreign investment has also risen as evident from meagre $376 million in 1998-99 to a whopping $1.5 billion in 2004-05. The fiscal deficit percentage of GDP in 1998-99 was 6.1 while it slid down to 3.8 percentage. In 1998-99 the imports was $9.6 billion and export was $7.5 billion but in 2004-05 the imports jumped to $18.7 billion and the export came to $14.3 billion."
Dr Ashfaque said that he was optimistic about the further growth in economy because the good governance had made it possible. " The economy has acquired a concrete firmness and it is safe to say that it would continue on the upward path," he added.
The advisor said that the recent earthquake had thrown a real challenge to the economy. The process of relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction was a gigantic task and needed conviction and determination to do it with flying colours. "I think it would not burden the national budget to a large extent," he said.
The government has substantial amount in the relief fund and intended to distribute Rs 20 billion to the victims," Dr Ashfaque concluded.
Earlier, South Asia Forum Chairman Syed Jawaid Iqbal welcomed the finance ministry advisor and praised him as the outstanding economist of the country.
He lauded the debt reduction strategy of Dr Ashfaque, calling it a work of genius that changed the gloomy economic scene of the country to a rosy one.
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