Islamabad: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal said that Pakistan’s central economic challenge will be converting macroeconomic stability into sustained growth, higher productivity, exports, investment and employment. He was speaking to a visiting delegation of MBA students from Harvard Business School
Iqbal said that Pakistan should be viewed merely through the scale of its underlying potential: with a population of nearly 260 million, a large youth population, strategic geography , agricultural and mineral resources, an expanding digital economy and a strong global diaspora, Pakistan possesses significant foundations for long-term growth and prosperity.
He said Pakistan was past the recurring cycle of “boom, external account pressure, stabilisation and slowdown” after restructuring the economy around productivity.
“Stabilisation is necessary, but stabilisation alone is not development. Pakistan cannot austerity its way to prosperity. We have to earn our prosperity through productivity, innovation, investment and exports,” he added.
The Minister briefed the students on URAAN Pakistan, the government’s national transformation framework built around the 5Es: Exports, Enterprise and Employment; E-Pakistan and the digital economy; Environment, Climate Change, Food and Water Security; Energy and Infrastructure; and Equity, Ethics and Empowerment.
He said Pakistan has set the ambition of becoming a $1 trillion economy by 2035, but stressed that the objective was not simply to achieve a numerical GDP target.
“The real question is what Pakistan will be capable of producing and selling competitively to the world in 2035 that it cannot produce today. Development is ultimately about building national capabilities,” he continued.
Highlighting the importance of human capital, he said Pakistan’s greatest resource was its people and said that the young population needed to be supported by education, nutrition, healthcare, skills and employment.
“Human capital is our most important infrastructure. The enduring strength of advanced economies lies not only in physical assets but in the intellectual software generated by their universities, research institutions and innovation ecosystems,” he finished.
