Pakistan needs long-term planning to achieve sustainable growth: Tarin

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan needs to make long-term planning to achieve sustainable and all-inclusive economic growth, and the government wanted to draw up concrete proposals for sustainable economic growth through comprehensive and seamless planning across major sectors by taking all stakeholders on board, a senior government official said.

Chairing the third meeting of the newly-reconstituted Economic Advisory Council, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin said that the underlying rationale is to secure the future of coming generations in the country.

Private members Sultan Ali Allana, Farooq Rehmatullah and Zaid Bashir shared valuable input during the meeting. Four sub-groups made respective presentations on the occasion. The sub-groups gave their presentations on the topics of state-owned entities (SOEs) and privatisation, energy, domestic commerce and price stability.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Finance and Revenue Dr Waqar Masood Khan gave a detailed presentation on the price stability, which included short-, medium- and long-term proposals for bringing price stability in the country.

Khan drew a comparative analysis between prices prevailing in the country and also in the entire region in the current and historical perspectives.

Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam and Federal Minister for Industries for Production Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtyar also gave their valuable input on the issue.

Rehmatullah gave a presentation on the energy sector. The presentation highlighted global, regional and local trends in the refining sectors. It also included recommendations for bringing in sustainable solutions to streamline operations from oil downstream to marketing sectors.

Rehmatullah gave suggestions to deal with the challenges being faced by the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), exploration and production sectors and to explore renewable energy resources in Pakistan.

Allana made a presentation on the state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The privatisation secretary briefed the meeting on the privatisation process and emphasised on the importance of continued review of the state-owned enterprises portfolio and also highlighted the steps for better management of the same.

The presentation included short-, medium- and long-term strategies for the better management of the SOEs in phases. The presentation also included measures to speed up the privatisation process in a smooth and timely manner.

Bashir made a presentation on the domestic commerce sector. The presentation underlined to enrich and revive the documented/integrated sectors and fully realise the true potential of e-commerce during the short-term by bringing retailers into a more organised environment, ultimately, increasing the contribution to the national exchequer.

Tax credit on enlistment of companies and to incentivise the induction of women in workforce were suggested as part of the medium-term plans, whereas financing facility for growth of the retailers and tax adjustability were suggested as part of a long-term strategy for promoting the domestic commerce sector in the country.

All the participants held an in-depth discussion on the proposals presented during the meeting and shared their valuable input. A follow-up session would be held soon.

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