Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said the government will come up with new ideas in the weeks to come for the long term economic improvement.
Talking to a delegation of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he vowed to collectively steer the country out of current economic challenges.
The Finance Minister said we will bring agriculture revolution, establish a sovereign wealth fund and the IT sector will be focused. He said we will do the things which were ignored in the past.
Ishaq Dar said the delay in the IMF program is unprecedented as there is no technical reason behind it.
The Finance Minister once again ruled out the default and regretted the statements being made by certain elements within the country in this regard. He said Pakistan is a solvent country having assets worth trillions of dollars. He said our external liabilities are around one hundred billion dollars but at the same time our only one asset of gas infrastructure is about forty to forty five billion dollars. He said there is no need to worry.
The Finance Minister asked the business community to put forward their reasonable demands with regards to the upcoming budget, assuring the government will cooperate with them.
Meanwhile, talking to delegations of Pakistan Business Council and Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Finance Minister assured that the genuine and realistic demands of the business community vis-a-vis the budget will be entertained according to the economic space available.
He said the budget will be presented on Friday next. He said government has delivered on all sovereign commitments at a huge political cost.
He said we are currently in consolidation phase and expressed the resolve to sail through the difficult times with collective efforts.
Separately talking to a delegation of Pakistan Stock Exchange, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said the coalition government has undertaken painful reforms and difficult decisions to save the economy.
He said we have saved the country from default. He expressed the commitment to strengthen the economy.
Source: Radio Pakistan