Experts Stress Effective Policies To Ensure Potential Economic Growth

Experts stress effective policies to ensure potential economic growth

The Burki Institute of Public Policy (BIPP) Thursday launched its report "The changing world Pakistan reset" at a Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) ceremony, which was attended by prominent economists from public and private sectors, institutions, academia, civil society organisations, etc

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Dec, 2021 ) :The Burki Institute of Public Policy (BIPP) Thursday launched its report "The changing world Pakistan reset" at a Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) ceremony, which was attended by prominent economists from public and private sectors, institutions, academia, civil society organisations, etc.

LCCI President Mian Nauman Kabir, Vice President Haris Ateeq, Shahid Najam, Dr. Farukh Iqbal, Aiman Adnan, Lt-Gen (retd) Ghulam Mustafa and Prof Dr Javed Akram were the key speakers, who underlined the need for short- and long-term effective policies to ensure potential growth of national economy. They also spelled out the critical challenges that needed to be addressed to achieve the desired pace of economic growth.

The major thrust of the report was to suggest policies to reset the economy to its long-term potential growth path and inextricable nexus between technological advancement and economic development.

LCCI President Mian Nauman Kabir said that the theme of this year's annual report is "The Changing WorldPakistan Reset" that provides an objective analysis of the economic performance, COVID-19's impact on selected social sectors, and Pakistan's options to reposition itself with respect to changing regional geopolitics.

He said that in pre-pandemic time, Pakistan's economy had just started moving towards stability. Unfortunately, the outbreak of corona pandemic adversely affected the global economy. Pakistan is now facing stiff economic challenges including high inflation (11.5 per cent), persistent devaluation in Currency, relatively excessive policy rate (8.75 per cent), escalating fiscal deficit, continued rise in trade deficit and shrinking of national economy.

"I believe that there is always a way to get out of any crisis," the LCCI president said and added that the country desperately need a path to economic recovery through devising medium to long term macroeconomic policies. He said, "We are lucky that our country did not plunge into such crises that were unmanageable." Mian Nauman Kabir praised the prudent policies of the government which took various measures to stop the further spread of Coronovirus while keeping the economic damage to minimum proportion.

From complete lockdown to smart lockdown, all the strategies brought the desired results which were praised by World Health Organization and many countries.

The LCCI President said that the report has calculated the impact of Covid-19 on various social sectors of our economy and proposed certain steps to bring the improvement especially in the employability of such manpower who are directly or indirectly associated with these sectors.

He said that due to consistent rise in national imports, the trade deficit seems to get out of proportion as during the first four months of the current financial year (Jul-Oct 2021) the trade deficit has surpassed USD 15 billion. He said that many projects being carried out under CPEC have entered into next stage in which Pakistan has to import more machinery. The only way to subside the impact of trade deficit is to enhance exports. We would be very keen to know as to what measures this report has suggested in this connection.

Other speakers said that the public policy focus to harness the youth asset, information technology and small and medium enterprises. They called for a stable domestic macro-policy environment to cope the key long-term challenges being faced by Pakistan. They said that Pakistan has met a success in Covid-19 management. The latest update of the "return to normalcy" index created by economic magazine shows Pakistan ranks 3rd globally behind only Hong Kong and New Zealand.

Burki Institute of Public Policy in its report, has provided an objective overview of the economic situation of Pakistan and pathway ahead in the wake of geo strategic/geo political and geo economic dynamic in the region and pursuant to the consecutive waves of the Covid-19 pandemic. It highlights the need for Pakistan to "Reset" to be able to respond effectively to the emerging challenges both nationally and globally given its geo-strategic location.