Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal has said that the government Vision 2025 focuses upon, seven major things including water, energy, food security, economic revival, Education and Human Resources. Addressing the third annual South Asian growth conference here on Tuesday Ahsan Iqbal said the Government has undertaken many projects to augment energy resources and for economic stability.
He pointed out that despite performing well economically, South Asia still lagged behind in social and human development indicators. If Water crisis is not controlled, the region would face food shortages in the coming years, he added. Ahsan Iqbal said the government has economic improvement high on its agenda and things have started changing as energy situation was improving; subsidies have been rationalised and the tax collection was showing positive sign. The government will also include institutional reforms and improvement in security with the aim to ensure sustainable development, he added.
The Minister expressed the optimism that through harnessing "our strengths" and by following the roadmap, the stability could be achieved in due course of time. Presenting their research papers in the three conference economists and financial wizard stressed the urgent need for greater co-operation between India and Pakistan to grow the economies of both countries.
In a session on tax collection, experiments conducted by Benjamin Olken (MIT, J-PAL) in Pakistan & Mushfiq Mobarak (Yale University School of Management) in Bangladesh highlighted the importance of incentives given to tax collectors on the total amount of revenue received.
Michael Best (London School of Economics) discussed the under-reporting of tax revenues and encouraged the government with responding by more carefully monitoring income. Policymakers from the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy and Oxus Investments and Research emphasised the need to firmly locate research in the policy context and be mindful of corruption and rent-seeking.
It may be added that top policymakers and researchers from across South Asia have joined leading experts in Lahore to debate the latest ideas for stimulating economic growth in South Asia at a conference hosted by the IGC in conjunction with the Government of Punjab and the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms.
The participants of the conference focused to economic growth, monetary policy and foreign investment in Pakistan and India. Atif Mian (Princeton University) talked about the lack of economic growth in Pakistan. Ehsan U. Chaudhry (Carleton University) followed this by analysing monetary policy in India and concludes that policymakers could focus on adjusting taxes to control public debt. IlaPatnaik (National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, India) concluded the presentations by looking at whether foreign investors impact domestic markets.
VegardIversen (University of Manchester) analysed the importance of women political leaders in the reduction of corruption despite continued barriers. Finally, Farzana Afridi (Indian Statistical Institute) discussed the combating of poor delivery of South Asian public services through community monitoring.
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