ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Friday that Pakistan would grow in 2021 as exports were on the rise with the textile industry operating at full capacity, and the construction industry booming.
Addressing the groundbreaking ceremony of joint venture of the JW and MG group $100 million vehicles manufacturing plant in Pakistan, the prime minister said the government would make business-friendly policies in 2021, and would incentivise industry for wealth creation.
All the wealth creation would be used to lift the people out of poverty, added the prime minister.
The prime minister said he set two targets for him in 2021, with first one to provide universal health coverage to all, and the programme has begun in the KP and will be soon in the Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan, and the second, to start the most ambitious nationwide project “Koi Bhuka Na Soyay” (No one should sleep hungry) under the Ehsaas programme.
By the end of the year, these two projects will move the government closer to the goal of making Pakistan a welfare state, he added.
He said the JW-MG contract for producing vehicles from March 2021 would have a ripple effect in the entire economy. “We will have more joint ventures with Chinese companies.”
The prime minister said that best ally of Pakistan for industrialization could be China as Pakistan could learn a lot from the Chinese development model.
China had achieved rapid development during the last 30 years.
Chinese model of development is based on industrial zones which attracted investment from abroad, and as a result there was wealth creation that was used to lift the people out of poverty, he added.
The prime minister further stated China had been able to lift 700 million people out of poverty during the last 30 years, and that development model was important for Pakistan because the government’s focus was to make Pakistan a welfare state and lift the people out of poverty.
“We do not believe in the new liberal theory of trickledown effect of economic development, and his government believes that development can only be achieved by lifting the people from poverty,” he said.
“We want relocation of Chinese industries in Pakistan’s special economic zones,” he said, and added, during the last 50 years; governments had not make any effort to increase the exports.
He said “we have to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) because of current account deficit consequent to increase in imports and fewer exports.
He said that when the government took IMF programme, it had to squeeze the economy, which created difficulties for the people.
He said Pakistan would take help from China in increasing exports, and how to increase productivity in agriculture.
He said that in the next phase of the CPEC, agriculture would be included.
Pakistan had navigated well from the Covid because Ehsaas programme distributed money among large number of people in a very short span of time.
Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar also spoke on the occasion, and informed the participants that JW and MG groups joint venture of $100 million investment was to set up vehicles manufacturing plant in Pakistan.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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