President Pervez Musharraf has appointed Dr Shamshad Akhtar as the new Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for three years. She has the honour of being the first woman governor of the central bank in Pakistan.
Dr Akhtar is currently working with Asian Development Bank (ADB) as Director-General, South-East Asia Department, in Manila, and will return to Pakistan after completing her commitments by the end of this month.
She has the degree of M Sc in Economics from the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, and also did her Masters in Development Economics from the University of Sussex in 1977.
She earned her Ph D in Development Economics from the UK. She is a Post-Doctoral Fellowship Fullbright scholar and was a visiting fellow at the Department of Economics, Harvard University in 1987.
Dr Akhtar assumed her position in ADB in January 2004. As a Director-General, she oversaw the operations of five divisions in the Southeast Asia Department-operations co-ordination, infrastructure, agriculture, environment and natural resources, social sectors and governance, finance and trade. The Southeast Asia Department covers Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore. ADB's resident mission in Indonesia and country office in the Philippines was her responsibilities, too.
Dr Shamdad started her career as an Economist in Pakistan with World Bank's Resident Mission in Pakistan, and worked there for 10 years. She also worked briefly with the Planning offices both at the Federal and Sindh governments. She joined ADB and was assigned to Bangladesh and India. She became a Senior Economist in ADB's Financial Sector and Industry Division in 1996 and became a Manager in 1998.
She has presented numerous papers on economics and finance in international conferences. Her current research interests are in Monetary and Fiscal Policy, Banking and Capital Market, International Finance Architecture, Regulation and Supervision, and Industrial and Corporate Restructuring. She was ADB's Co-ordinator for APEC Finance Ministers group from 1996-2001 and has served on a number of ADB committees including the reorganisation committee, appeals committee and oversight committee.
She talked to Aaj TV from Manila, Philippines, on Saturday. Excerpts of her answers:
Q. Dr Shamshad Akhtar, welcome to Aaj News and congratulation for getting this coveted job. What are the challenges before you as Governor SBP?
Ans. The challenges I see are simply the same challenges a person faces in any central bank.
And I think the key issues are really the monetary policy, inflation, banking sector management and also trying to diversify the financial sector. So I see some of the general issues as common to Pakistan as they are internationally in some of the developing countries I have worked in.
Q. Your long association with ADB has given you insight in the economies of South-Asian and South-East Asian countries. What are the common economic and financial values of these countries and if different, how?
Ans. Asia region is quite diversified. I mean, one is besides diversity. The second is clearly South Asia, that is significantly different from Southeast Asia.
And the last few years I have been working in South-East Asia and usually public knows very well that Southeast Asia faced a tremendous amount of financial crisis since 1998 and the economies of Southeast Asia have shown tremendous amount of resilience, and financial sectors in these countries have a substantive breadth and depth and they have now stabilised significantly.
If I look at South Asia financial sector, I think they are still relatively small, compared to Southeast Asia. But there has been significant improvement in the financial sector, both in breadth and depth. There is an outstanding problem of non-performing loans and also there is a problem of credit growth with certain countries, and recently with the interest rates going up, financial sectors are going to face some challenging problems, but the interest rates scenario is still emerging. So, I see these to be some common challenges in these economies.
Q. You have worked with ADB for economic and fiscal reforms of this region. What are your expectations about the effective reforms in Pakistan?
Ans. The relations between Asian Development Bank and Pakistan are quite strong. And, as far as I know, the lending levels are also quite high, and Pakistan has been a very important development partner for Asian Development Bank; and I just see a very promising relationship between Asian Development Bank and Pakistan.
I have not worked in Pakistan for about 10 years now. I did work for Asian Development Bank for 2 years in Pakistan and my association had been really confined to the financial markets and trade & industry.
And the results of the reform programme were very promising from Pakistan's outlook. Pakistan implemented these reforms very efficiently and, as I see broadly, Pakistan has been able to be a very good implementor in a number of areas, particularly on the financial sector reforms.
Q. Your predecessor Dr Ishrat Husain has said that challenge for new SBP Governor would be controlling the inflation. What is your opinion in this regard?
Ans. I fully agree with him (Dr Ishrat Husain). I don't have a strong understanding, as he had of the Pakistan economy, because I've been out of the country. So, I'm not very current. Of course, I know the fundamentals of our economy pretty well.
But since I have been out of the country for 14 years I can speak with much more command about the East Asian economies today. I think I would be in a better position after taking stock of the economic situation of Pakistan when I reach there. Then I will be in a better position to comment, but from what I have been reading from a very long distance, I fully share concerns and the points that Dr Ishrat Husain has raised.
Q. What is your timeframe for coming to Pakistan for assuming your responsibilities?
Ans. I have just been informed a short while ago. I have to discuss this matter with the management of Asian Development Bank. I do have certain international commitments in the next few days. So, I would have to take stock next week and then possibly fix a time schedule for my relocation to Pakistan. It would be too early for me to comment with respect to a date, but I do need to discuss this issue with my management because I do have strong commitments for the month of December. So, it would be better if this question is raised after a few days. Today is Saturday, and Sunday here; so the offices are closed.