PESHAWAR: Speakers at a symposium on economy said on Friday that despite challenges to the provincial economy at various levels, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has all the potential to become a booming economy with an exceptional growth rate and record reduction in unemployment provided more focused efforts were made to channelise the province’s true potential.

The symposium titled ‘state of the economy and future priorities’ was jointly arranged by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), Pakistan, and Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).

Former federal finance minister Dr Hafeez A Pasha said on this occasion that despite challenges like facing the brunt of war on terror due to huge spending on law and order, confronting power loadshedding and the highest population growth, KP has shown the highest growth rate of economy in the country.

Dr Hafeez Pasha calls for focus on western corridor of CPEC

Dr Pasha said that it was quite encouraging that KP had achieved the highest economic growth in the country though population growth rate in KP remained at 2.9 per cent compared to 2.4 per cent in the country. He said that the province had also shown the highest trend of increase in its urban population and that it had faced unfair share of loadshedding despite producing surplus electricity.

The former finance minister said that CPEC could be a real game changer for Pakistan and KP, if implemented properly. He said that to actualise its real potential the western corridor needed to be focused. He said that the unemployment rate in the province was still 10 per cent which should be a matter of concern.

Dr Vaqar Ahmed, joint executive director of SDPI, also presented an outlook of national economy and said that the national economic agenda must be aligned with the emerging economic realities. In this regard, he added, that instead of embarking on yet another tax amnesty scheme, the government should make utmost efforts to operationalise the cooperation agreements with countries that were signed already, particularly, related to ill-gotten wealth.

On this occasion, two books related to Pakistan’s national economy, including ‘Growth and Inequality in Pakistan’ by Dr Hafiz A Pasha, and ‘Pakistan’s Agenda for Economic Reforms’ by Dr Vaqar Ahmed were also launched.

The excerpts from both the books were shared with the participants comprising leading economists, representatives of trade and business communities and media, highlighting diverse aspects and issues pertaining to the state of economy of the country and provinces.

Abdul Qadir, while representing FES, highlighted salient features of both the books. Experts and business leaders, including Mohammad Adnan Jalil, Dr Faisal Khan, Shahid Khattak and Dr Adil Zareef, said that economic reforms were need of hour.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2018