ISLAMABD - A major amount of our tax revenue is used for debt servicing and defence. Nearly a quarter of our import bill is oil. There are seven categories of oil that the country consumes and of these, two account for two-thirds of oil consumption, i.e. diesel and furnace oil.
This was expressed by the prominent economist Dr Kaiser Bengali on the seminar “State of Pakistan’s economy: present and future”, organised by Pakistan Council on Foreign Relations (PCFR) at Institute of Business Management. He suggested to rehabilitate Pakistan Railways. All transport entities make revenue from cargo and subsidised passenger service and the same should be the case for railways. He called for the creation of a holding company comprising railways and NLC to integrate rail and road cargo services. Dr Bengali recommended that subsidises should be diversified to other industries.
He was confident that effective policies can reduce unemployment and poverty rate to a single digit in a decade. Former Chairman FBR, Shabbar Zaidi presented an overview of Pakistan’s economy from 1947 to 2022. He commented that despite Pakistan is taking the 27th IMF programme since its inception all indicators of the millennium development goals are dwindling. 40 percent of the GDP is undocumented, the current deficit would be over $20 billion this year and we will face further problems in the coming years. While presenting solutions to strengthen Pakistan’s economy, Mr Zaidi suggested better economic management, empowering female industrial workers and local governments, debt restructuring, re-examination of our expenditures and strong economic relations with the US and the EU.
Ambassador (R) Shahid Amin presented the welcome address and Ambassador (R) Syed Hasan Habib presented a vote of thanks to the speakers, guests, businessmen, veteran diplomats and former ambassadors. In the end, mementos were presented to Mr Shabbar Zaidi and Dr Kaiser Bengali by Ambassador (R) Shahid Amin, Secretary General PCFR Mr Ahsan Zuberi and Mr Talib Karim as a token of appreciation by PCFR and IoBM.
This was expressed by the prominent economist Dr Kaiser Bengali on the seminar “State of Pakistan’s economy: present and future”, organised by Pakistan Council on Foreign Relations (PCFR) at Institute of Business Management. He suggested to rehabilitate Pakistan Railways. All transport entities make revenue from cargo and subsidised passenger service and the same should be the case for railways. He called for the creation of a holding company comprising railways and NLC to integrate rail and road cargo services. Dr Bengali recommended that subsidises should be diversified to other industries.
He was confident that effective policies can reduce unemployment and poverty rate to a single digit in a decade. Former Chairman FBR, Shabbar Zaidi presented an overview of Pakistan’s economy from 1947 to 2022. He commented that despite Pakistan is taking the 27th IMF programme since its inception all indicators of the millennium development goals are dwindling. 40 percent of the GDP is undocumented, the current deficit would be over $20 billion this year and we will face further problems in the coming years. While presenting solutions to strengthen Pakistan’s economy, Mr Zaidi suggested better economic management, empowering female industrial workers and local governments, debt restructuring, re-examination of our expenditures and strong economic relations with the US and the EU.
Ambassador (R) Shahid Amin presented the welcome address and Ambassador (R) Syed Hasan Habib presented a vote of thanks to the speakers, guests, businessmen, veteran diplomats and former ambassadors. In the end, mementos were presented to Mr Shabbar Zaidi and Dr Kaiser Bengali by Ambassador (R) Shahid Amin, Secretary General PCFR Mr Ahsan Zuberi and Mr Talib Karim as a token of appreciation by PCFR and IoBM.
