National conference on "Roadmap for Economic Growth of Pakistan" emphasised the need of a comprehensive strategy to meet the economic challenges being faced by Pakistan. The conference was organised by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) in collaboration with Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF), Germany here on Wednesday.
Dr Vaqar Ahmed, Deputy Executive Director, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Islamabad in his paper on "fiscal challenges and response" suggested agro-tax by bringing big farmers into the tax net. He also identified the bottlenecks of present tax regime in Pakistan. Kristof Duwaerts, Resident Representative Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF), Germany, said that Pakistan economy had always been resilient, but at the same time concerted efforts were needed by incorporating all components of the society into economy.
Dr Asad Zaman, Vice Chancellor PIDE, chief guest of the conference said: the term "economic growth" does not necessarily mean bringing poverty down rather it has to focus and invest on overall human development. He maintained that if poverty had to be tackled, the poor must have information about health, education and setting priorities etc. Dr Zaman suggested a community based development approach for a country like Pakistan.
Dr Imran Sharif Chaudhry, Department of Economics, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, talked about "economic performance in recent past". He deplored that Pakistan stood 146th on Human Development Index (HDI) in 2014 coupled with low Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) over the years. At the same time he appreciated Pakistan's economy as it did not get affected by recent global recession. In terms of remittances, Pakistan stands the second in South Asia.
Dr Naheed Zia Khan, Dean Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Fatima Jinnah University, Rawalpindi talked about "problems and prospects of foreign direct investment". She opined that despite lot of leverage to foreign investors in Pakistan, FDI could not be attracted.
Dr M Arshad, Dean Faculty of Agriculture, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, gave his presentation on "strategies for enhancing agricultural growth and food security". He opined that probably agriculture was the only sector which had contributed to the economic growth. It also provided the food to ever increasing huge population. He warned that the rapid climate degradation/changes would have severe impact on the agri production in Pakistan. Dr Arshad also deplored that the seed production was the most ignored sector in Pakistan.
Dr Rehana Siddiqui, former Joint Director, PIDE, Islamabad spoke on "meeting the energy requirements". Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan, Principal and Dean, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NUST, Islamabad, spoke on "what ails Pakistan's public finances". He said that targeting revenue had become an irrelevant budgetary exercise due to the faulty budget making exercise. In his welcome address, Ambassador Sohail Amin, President IPRI remarked that the timing of this conference was also very appropriate since all Pakistanis remained focused on the measures being taken by the government for economic development of Pakistan.
Comments
Comments are closed.