ISLAMABAD: The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) in its report noted that though Pakistan is confronted with different challenges on the internal and external fronts, the country's economic conditions are improving steadily.
Despite facing political instability, Pakistan has always stood firm in the comity of nations with its high status earned through its relentless resilience and adaptability to all odds and ordeals.
The visible growth in various sectors will soon bring the day very close, when Pakistan will be considered at the top of the list of developed countries.
Though Pakistan is confronted with different challenges on its internal and external fronts, the country's economic conditions are improving steadily.
Dr Bandar Hajjar, president of IsDB Group and Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar, minister for economic affairs co-chaired online launch of the report on “Mapping Pakistan’s Resource Centres”.
This report focuses on four key sectors of the economy, (1) agriculture (2) agro-based industry (3) pharmaceutical industry, and (4) information communication technology.
The profiles of 16 Pakistani institutions – referred as Resource Centres - that have excellence in the respective field and developed reliable technologies have been published which can be shared by other member countries.
Pakistan believes in peaceful coexistence and desires peace and tranquility in the whole world and this is what the country has been focusing on in its diplomatic endeavors, while countering conspiracies being hatched by enemies to isolate Pakistan.
The political and military leadership, economic troubleshooters, clerics and scholars, and the nation at large are committed to make Pakistan a prosperous and developed country.
According to the report, the recent global food crises, while creating difficulties for net food importing countries, is equally providing opportunities for developing countries such as Pakistan to focus and benefit from the current situation by giving more serious attention to agriculture-based industries.
In this scenario, Pakistan is changing its policy-orientation towards yield enhancement and addressing structural issues such as improving poor crop management skills of farmers; provision of affordable inputs such as quality seeds; improvement in agriculture infrastructure; reducing post-harvest losses; developing value chains; narrowing gap between research and its practical applications; and provision of adequate funding for research and development activities.
In his welcoming remarks, Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar, Minister for Economic Affairs appreciated the IsDB’s support in socio-economic development of Pakistan and thanked IsDB and Pakistani institutions for undertaking the mapping exercise.
He underlined the importance of this report by saying that this will help the developing member countries to benefit from Pakistan’s experience through knowledge sharing.
Dr Bandar Hajjar, the president of IsDB Group, appreciated the great potential of knowledge and expertise available in Pakistan and cherished that other member countries will benefit from this publication.
He also informed that IsDB has an ongoing support to mitigate Covid-19 impacts and has further allocated 2.5 billion USD to help the member countries for vaccine procurement.
The Minister for Economic Affairs said that producing the report on the “Mapping of Pakistan’ Resource Centers” is an important milestone to highlight the level of development in four key sectors of the economy i.e. agriculture, agro-based industries, pharmaceuticals, and information and communication technologies.
Additionally, Pakistan has great experience to share in social protection and poverty alleviation, textile and related industries, and dairy and milk products under the South- South Cooperation.
The minister for economic affairs and the president IsDB expressed their readiness to cooperate with each other and to involve the selected Resource Centers in Reverse Linkage projects for the betterment of Islamic Ummah.
The event was virtually attended by all field offices of the IsDB in the member countries and other experts.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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