CPEC: Finance Minister says Pakistan failed to attract investors for its SEZs

Islamabad: Pakistani Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said that Pakistan had not been able to attract investors for its Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Tarin admitted that it was the government’s failure and work had to be done in this area. “We should attract investors for our Special Economic Zones via the CPEC,” he said.

Unveiling the Pakistan Economic Survey 2020-21 here at a news conference, the Finance minister said China was outsourcing 85 million jobs and Pakistan should avail this opportunity to earn dollars. “We also want to earn dollars as well to repay off loans. We should take this opportunity,” he maintained.

Tarin said Turkey, China and India were nations who underwent sustainable economic growth over the past 20-30 years and shifted from one orbit to another.

The Pakistani government, he said, would focus on the bottom up approach to help the poor man in Pakistan, as well as providing a support to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) by providing loans.

The Pakistan Economic Survey is an annual report on the performance of the economy, focusing in particular on major macroeconomic indicators.

Tarin started out by highlighting the devastating impact of Covid-19 in contracting the economy and how the third wave had resulted in mass unemployment. But, he said, the decisions of this government helped the economy stabilise which resulted in improving performance on the growth front.

“The government itself had set (Gross Domestic Product) growth will be 2.1 percent and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) predicted even lower. But the decisions by this government such as incentivising manufacturing and textiles, construction, gas and electricity and interventions in agriculture have helped the economy recover,” he claimed.

He said Pakistan had recorded a provisional growth rate of 3.94pc in the first 9 months (July to March) of the fiscal year. Tarin said Large-Scale Manufacturing (LSM) showed growth of 9pc, while the agriculture sector growth clocked in at 2.77pc despite the “cotton crop getting ruined.”

The Finance Minister said the government wanted to control inflation “but prices are still high and affecting the common man”.

The Finance Minister said Pakistan’s total debt had increased nominally in the last 9 months. He said Pakistan’s total debt increased Rs 1.67 trillion in Financial; Year 2020-2021 to reach Rs 38 trillion.

“Out of this Rs 25 trillion is local debt while around Rs 12.5 trillion is foreign debt. I’m not saying it’s a commendable thing that our debt is growing. I am not saying that. But you can see stability (in the economy) return slowly,” he added.

He said both mobile phones and broadband subscribers have immensely increased in Pakistan at 182 million and 100 million respectively, adding that it showed market penetration of 48% of these services.