Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Tuesday declared that Pakistan has achieved 8.35 percent GDP growth, against the target of 7 percent this year. He made this announcement at the Annual Plan Co-ordination Committee (APCC) meeting here on Tuesday. Shaukat told the meeting that Pakistan had achieved over 8 percent growth rate five times in its history - 10.2 percent in 1953-54; 9.4 percent in 1964-65; 8.7 percent in 1983-84--and now repeated the same performance after a long gap during the current fiscal year. He congratulated the people in general and policy makers in particular for hitting 8.35 percent growth rate and expressed optimism that Pakistan would maintain the high tide by showing excellent performance in all areas in the future.
The Prime Minister said: "We, as a nation, are used to face the challenges upfront, and beat them with honour and dignity." He cited 1998 and its fallout when Pakistan tested nuclear device and faced challenges. He said that every time Pakistan proved that it was capable enough to face any challenge and translate it into big success.
He said that Pakistan took its sick economy as a challenge some six years back when President General Pervez Musharraf took over, "and today it stands among the nations, which have the highest growth rate in the region".
He said the government had put in place a well thought-out economic policy, which is based on three golden principles: deregulation, privatisation and liberalisation. The policy gave expected results to bring the national economy back on the right track. He said the government was pushing forward its reforms agenda to improve the efficiency of the key areas. He mentioned banking sector in particular which, in his opinion, has been performing extremely well. He said that 85 percent of the banks are now being managed by the private sector, and it was indicative of liberal economic policy of the government.
The Prime Minister gave a sector-wise performance report which mentioned that in 2004-05, agriculture sector grew by 7.5 percent, large scale manufacturing sector by 15.4 percent and services sector by 7.9 percent. He listed some other areas, which showed robust growth. He said growth rate of many key sectors, such as engineering, textile, and chemicals, ranged between 10 and 20 percent.
He said that Pakistan's per capita income has gone up to $700, and strong economic recovery indicates that per capita income would increase substantially in the years to come.
The Prime Minister also highlighted some of the implications of high growth rates. He was concerned about growing gap between demand and supply in various areas and wanted that his economic team should respond again aggressively to overcome the challenge. He said a new middle class was emerging, which demands more supply in many areas, and the policy makers should come up with a permanent solution to the situation.
He directed the policy makers that they should give priority to rural areas-related development programme and divert major portion of resources to less developed and remote areas, such as Balochistan.
Other areas for which the Prime Minister wanted more funds in the next budget were infrastructure, farm-to-market roads, and better communications in less developed areas.
He gave a loud and clear message to the participants that they should take all possible steps to ensure timely completion of the projects and development schemes, as delay could slow down the country's pace of progress.
He said that the government absorbed Rs 40 billion to protect the people from high oil prices in the international market, but did not adjust the differential in local and international market, as was the case with many of developing countries.