Govt aims 50% reduction in poverty, doubling GDP in five years

• Economic plan envisages attracting $29 billion in investment.
• GDP growth target has been envisaged at 6% till FY 2028-29.
• 'Uraan Pakistan' to focus on export-led growth, says Ahsan Iqbal.

ISLAMABAD: The government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, through its National Economic Transformation Plan, aims to achieve ambitious economic targets, including doubling GDP growth and halving poverty over a five-year period, The News reported on Saturday.

The economic plan envisages attracting $29 billion anticipated investment under the supervision of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) including $10 billion from the UAE, $5 billion from Saudi Arabia, $2 billion from Qatar, $2 billion from Azerbaijan, and $10 billion from Kuwait.

It also provisions a road map for implementation till 2029, as the ministries and provinces will prepare their annual targets so sectoral plans will also be implemented.

The quarterly monitoring of key targets would be done through the National Economic Transformation Unit (NETU). Timelines would be envisaged for each sectoral plan and the prime minister would be informed on a quarterly basis.

The GDP growth target has been envisaged at 6% of the GDP till the Fiscal Year 2028-29 from a baseline scenario of 2.5% in 2023-24; the per capita income in dollar term is projected to go up to $2,405 from $1,680.

The investment will go up to 17% of the GDP from 13.1%, while inflation will be kept in the single digit at 6.2% and poverty reduced to 12% from the existing level of 21.4% in the five-year period.

The plan also envisages the GDP growth touching the mark of $1 trillion by 2035 with the growth rate touching 9.8% in the same fiscal year. However, the "Uraan Pakistan" did not illustrate explicitly anything about the exchange rate but sources said it was assumed that the rupee-dollar parity would remain stable.

When asked about the assumption of a stable exchange rate, Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal replied that "Uraan Pakistan" would focus on export-led growth, as in the past the growth rate witnessed the boom and bust cycle mainly because of more reliance on import-led growth.

He said all the provinces signed the "Uraan Pakistan" document, as it was aimed at making Pakistan Asia's economic tiger.

Addressing a news conference, Iqbal said it was economic terrorism to give a call for barring overseas Pakistan from sending remittances but they dispatched more remittances in the recent months. He also appealed to expatriates to send more remittances through the official banking channels.

For exports, he said the government would focus on agriculture, industry, IT, service sector, mining and blue economy, and exports could be jacked up to $60 billion. He said imports from China stood at $2.7 trillion while Pakistan's share stood at just $3 billion, which could be increased to $50 to $100 billion.

The Chinese importers, he stated, offered him during a recent visit that import of $1 billion worth of meat from Pakistan could be ordered but it could result in a price spiral in Pakistan. So, there was a need to jack up exportable surplus to guarantee higher and sustained growth.

On the internet slowdown, the minister said the firewall was installed to combat the challenges of cybersecurity and digital terrorism.

He said the IT exports had achieved 34% growth. There are technical hitches but these are not hampering the growth of IT services, he added.