Pakistan needs sustainable export led growth: Iqbal

Minister for raising productivity, adopting international techniques

ISLAMABAD:

“Pakistan desperately needs to take measures to bring the country’s economy out of crisis through sustainable export led economic growth,” said Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday.

Addressing the closing ceremony of a two-day international conference on Productivity Accreditation and Certification, organised by National Productivity Organisation (NPO) on the occasion of APO’s Diamond Jubilee, he reiterated, “Sustainable economic growth is possible only through increasing productivity that leads to more exports and higher economic growth.”

The minister observed that the country had been facing a foreign exchange reserve and balance of payment crisis for a long time due to a slow growth in exports. “Whenever we cross 6% of GDP growth, the government faces a dollar shortage issue. As a result, we have to put emergency brakes on the economic growth to resolve the balance of payment crisis,” he maintained.

In 2018, the PML-N government had launched the Productivity Initiative, with help from the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), aimed at increasing productivity by promoting quality and innovation. Soon after, however, the government was changed and the initiative was discontinued, recalled the minister. He maintained that sustainable economic development was directly linked to political stability and continuity in policies.

He further highlighted that Pakistan could earn an additional $10 to $12 billion per year only in the agriculture sector if international techniques of growing crops were adopted.

Addressing a separate event, the minister said that the whole world was going through an economic crisis as the world was still recovering from the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2022.

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