Political stability, continuity of polices prerequisite for economic development

 Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday said that political stability, continuity of economic policies and quality of human resources were the prerequisite for socio-economic uplift of the country.

Addressing the 33rd Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists, he said that right indigenous economic policies were vital in current time complex global economic situation, where the it was going under the paradigm shift and business models were passing through age of digitalization.

He said that the development models of the different countries, which were discussed in TV talk shows every day had taken 20-40 years for their replication and it were able to implement due to consistency, continuity and stability in the economic reforms agenda of governments of the respective countries.

The minister said that new economy are the mind economy and knowledge was the key driver for the every sector of the economy including agriculture, industry, communications and services sectors, adding that adoption of modern and innovative technology was important to produce low cost and competitive produces to compete in the international markets.

He stressed the need for linking the industrial development with global industrial platform and creating attractive opportunities to attract the foreign investment by using the modern information and communication means for the development of the country.

Highlighting the economic performance of the government, he said that when this government came in power in 2013, the people have to face electricity outage for 18-20 hours per day, which had badly affected the agriculture and industrial sectors of the country.

Besides, the infrastructure was the second bottleneck in the economic development as the railways and road network were badly effected and creating problems for logistics, he added.

He said that under such circumstances the government has initiated its journey and introduced Vision 2025, focusing on every aspect of the socio-economic development of the country, which faced huge criticism from opponents.

He said that due to continued efforts and struggle of the government the economic situation of the country improved and over 50 percent feeders have zero load shedding, whereas the industrial sector was being provided un-interrupted power supply across the country.

Besides, the government was also working on mega energy sector projects and on the construction of water reservoirs to fulfill the future requirements of the country, adding that it had made huge investments in infrastructure development projects to connect the less developed areas with the developed ones.

The minister said that the security situation of the country also turned around and confidence of international investors was restored, whereas different infrastructure and energy development projects under China-Pakistan was heading towards completion.

He called upon the media for promoting the positive image of the country and successes being achieved during last four years to send a positive message to world.