Country's economic future: restoration of people's confidence a big challenge: Burki

The major challenge for the next government would be to restore people confidence in the economic future of the country because people are dissatisfied with the existing state of governance. This was stated by former Finance Minister and Vice President of World Bank Shahid Javed Burki on Thursday while delivering a lecture on "moving the economy forward" organised by Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).
Burki also proposed strategy for way forward to achieve a self-sustaining economy and growth to meet the growing requirements of employment creation and service delivery. He said that low GDP of about 2 per cent in Pakistan was half of the Bangladesh and one fourth of India was posing serious risks to the incident of poverty.
Pakistan, he said required about 6 percent GDP growth to cater to the employment needs of youth but deplored that the country's economic situation and future do not look good with people becoming disappointed.
Shahid said the country's political leadership is required to create strategic framework for domestic resource mobilisation for moving toward self-sustaining economy. He said that the fiscal situation was compounded by the dysfunctional large State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and the situation would consequently impact the balance of payment.
Shahid said people have no longer confidence in the future of Pakistan's economy with everyone talking about the economic collapse and restoring confidence of the people is going to be a very important element for the next government to ensure investment and return of capital to the country. He suggested that ensuring institutional mechanism for accountability and space for the private sector could help immensely to restore confidence of people in the State machinery.
Moreover, he said that Pakistan should also focus on benefiting from the opportunities available in the regions by trading with India, China and Afghanistan. He underlined the need for long-term measures especially in agriculture sector, diversification from the method of developing final product from single unit as has been done by other countries by moving on to a value addition chain and human resources to achieve sustainable economic growth. He said well thought-out policies and their implementation could put the country on the road to growth and ensure bright future of the country.