ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Thursday said Buna Raast – first Pakistan cross-border real-time payment system linkages – would make remittances more affordable and accessible.
Speaking at the launching ceremony of Buna Raast project, he said this project also holds potential to accelerate Pakistan’s connectivity into a future model connectivity where transaction would take place region to region. He added that cross-border retail payments and remittances between Arab region and Pakistan amount to over $20 billion per annum.
The premier said Buna Raast is actually a great connectivity between Pakistan and Arab world and is a great step forward in promoting Pakistan financial transactions to modern techniques.
Buna-Raast connectivity project will make remittances more convenient, says PM Shehbaz
He said that launching this project is significant because it is going to expand reach of Pakistan in digital payment infrastructure. He said that today Pakistan enters into a new dimension of digital governance by integrating Pakistan into the broader financial eco system and formulating remittance flow. He added that this ground-breaking imitative will further strengthen Pakistan’s historical relations with the Arab World in a modern digital way.
This landmark imitative aims in facilitating Pakistanis living abroad and ensure that their efforts translate seamlessly as well as timely to support for their families back home in Pakistan, said that the prime minister and added that Buna Raast signifies how in 21st century Pakistan is moving ahead with augmenting modern technology.
He said finance minister has made certain remarks in his speech but he would state that the country is still facing enormous challenges, however, he expressed the hope that these challenges would overcome.
He said that few challenges which makes his job more difficult is the challenge of federal board of revenue (FBR) which is now undergoing transformations. He added that he was personally supervising the digitization programme with the financial support of Karandaaz and Malinda and Gate Foundation and with the consultancy of Mackenzy.
He said the second challenge for him is a power sector and the government is dealing with it. He said that out programme is under discussion and he would announce the homegrown economic programme very soon as great amount of discussion has been done with all the stakeholders.
He said that this would be the programme for five years that would delineate how to improve economy, agriculture and IT sector and there is no magic wound rather it is about hard work.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024