News
Friday, April 01, 2011
President for out of box solutions to economic problems* Zardari calls upon economists to make concrete suggestions to put economy on solid footings
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has called upon the economists of the country to come up with out of box solutions to the economic problems of the country and make concrete recommendations on how to address some of the most critical issues faced by the economy.
Speaking on the 2nd Convocation of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) at the Presidency on Thursday, the president said that energy shortage, circular debt, taxation reforms, restructuring of public sector entities and documentation of the economy were among the critical issues of the country’s economy and the government was building consensus around these major economic challenges. He called upon the economists to make concrete suggestions for addressing these economic challenges to put the economy on solid footings.
President Zardari said that Pakistan is passing through hard times and we all need to stand together, adding, if not today, tomorrow will be too late.
The president said that the government inherited an ailing economy, which suffered heavily due to war against extremism on one hand and the unprecedented floods on the other.
He said that he believes that one way to address the economic issues and to gear up economic development was to incentive economic initiatives. The president noted that the foreign remittances in 2007 stood at $6.4 billion, which have been considerably increased by following policy of offering incentives on foreign remittances. This year, the president said, we hope that our foreign remittances would touch $11 billion mark.
He said that the government had given incentivise to farmers and as a result Pakistan became a wheat exporting country from a wheat importing country in 2007. This year 600,000 tonne of wheat has already been exported, the president told the gathering. He said that we could also increase our tax revenues and collection of sales tax by giving incentives.
The president also said that another important aspect in strengthening of the economy was ensuring the continuity of economic policies. He said that the energy sector had suffered most seriously because of the thoughtless reversal of the energy policies of mid-90s.
The president said that keeping in view the crucial role of continuity of policies in the economic sphere, he had called for a dialogue including all political parties and stakeholders and called upon the business community to provide ownership to the economic policies so that they were not reversed merely for political reasons.
President Zardari said that the government believes that the objective of a growth strategy must be social and human uplift. That is why, he said, the Pakistan People’s Party government had especially focused on drawing people out of poverty cycle of generations.
He said that a special poverty alleviation programme that enjoyed the credibility of donors both with the country and abroad was needed to provide social cover to the poorest of the poor.
He said that it was a matter of great satisfaction that the Benazir Income Support Programme had been a great success that provides direct income support to poor households.
The president said that we had to take difficult political decisions to bring the economy back on track. We also must realise that difficult decisions, that we have to take, have to be taken together, the president emphasised. He said that this was the reason for which he had called upon all political parties to join hands and arrive at some consensus on economic policies just as we were able to arrive at consensus on constitutional reforms.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk