A World Bank team on Saturday said Pakistan lacks a platform required to meet its growing energy and other infrastructure-related needs and suggested that the government should come up with a quick solution to address the risky issues.
It identified inequity in growth, high inflation rate and slow investment pace in energy sector, imbalance in imports and exports, and public sector's monopolistic attitude as serious problems for Pakistan and suggested that Islamabad should introduce a policy of openness, having more space for private sector to take the role of an engine to expedite the pace of progress and help it become competitive in today's challenging world.
The team comprising Graeme Wheeler, managing director; Praful Patel, regional vice chief; and Jhon W. Wall, country director for Pakistan.
Graeme Wheeler is currently visiting Pakistan. During his first two-day stay, he held separate meetings with President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, and other policy-makers to know what Islamabad plans to do to rise to the occasion and give World Bank's recipe to quicken the process of economic development.
The WB team was of the view that Pakistan's public sector entities especially gas, power utilities have been unable to attract investment to enhance their production capacity and as a result the country faces an imminent power crisis.
Graeme Wheeler and his other team members gave views on all issues relating to Pakistan's economy. These covered the government reforms programme, privatisation of public sector entities, particularly, gas and power producing and distribution companies.
He was convinced that Pakistan was much comfortable on economic front than four years back due to fast recovery and its growth was highly impressive. He noted that Pakistan's reforms and other initiatives for economic recovery have been a great success and hoped that the policy-makers in Islamabad will keep the same line of action intact to pass on its benefits to the people.
However, in Wheeler's opinion, Pakistan could even do better on economic front by exploiting its untapped potential. He said Pakistan's economic growth was much less than its actual potential and strategic location in the region. He was of the view that Pakistan should encourage private sector investment for energy and other sectors.
Jhon W. Wall recommended a three-pronged strategy to meet gas needs. It included exploitation of indigenous resources by offering incentives to the private sector, finding out a quick solution for import of gas and using the option of LNG that in Jhon's opinion was comparatively an easy option for supplementing local gas production.
In response to a question, Patel said Pakistan must focus on infrastructure-related projects to take a get positioned to deliver as energy and trade corridor for other countries of the region. He also wanted more active role from the regulatory bodies in Pakistan to have a check on the role of all parties in a deregulated regime.
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