Helping hand: Govt urges financiers to support development projects

Pakistan alone cannot bear burden of restructuring economy: minister.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal urged developing partners, World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Department for International Development (DFID) to collaborate with Pakistan in carrying forward the agenda for regional connectivity for improving trade and economic growth.

Speaking at the meeting of the development partners over regional integration, he reiterated that Pakistan had been pushed towards a severe economic crisis because of being a frontline state in the war against terror as it had paid a heavy human and economic cost. Hence, Pakistan alone would not be able to afford huge burden of its development needs and restructuring the economy, the minister added.



However, the minister still appreciated the role and contribution of development partners in the economic growth of Pakistan over the years. Still he asked for further support of the development partners to push the agenda of regional connectivity for improved trade and growth.

Iqbal highlighted that Pakistan was a member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), Economic Cooperation Organisation (Eco), Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (Carec), and actively participated in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), however he admitted that Pakistan had not utilised the benefits in a significant way.

Iqbal went on to say that the failure to develop infrastructure and protocols for large-scale overland trade and streamline the trade structure, together with the absence of comparative advantage in the capital intensive and high value-added products were some of the reasons for Pakistan’s failure in taking advantage of the potential in regional trade. He suggested that trade complementarities could be developed in the region only if the regional counterparts were able to achieve vertical specialisation through production-sharing arrangements. Therefore, enhanced regional connectivity through establishment of regional transit and economic corridor between Pakistan and China was being pursued aggressively by the government, he added.

At the occasion, the planning minister also discussed the future plans of the government, saying that the incumbent government had started preparing documents of Vision 2025 and the 11th five-year plan 2013-18, which will be finalised by the end of the year. He reassured the development partners that regional integration was an important element of the government’s vision.



Iqbal was of the view that the economic corridor project with China would be a milestone project, and transform the region by bringing in trade and job opportunities for all of people in the region. Regional connectivity projects in the fields of rail, road, energy and telecommunication were already being pursued by the government.

“Pakistan appreciates the support of its development partners; however, our strategy is to increasingly rely on local resources by focusing on tax reforms, promoting investment and exports.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2013.

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