Turn Around Conference: Shaukat Tarin gives important suggestion to Ahsan Iqbal

ISLAMABAD: Former finance minister Shaukat Tarin has given an important suggestion to Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader and Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal ahead of the Turn Around Conference to discuss strategy for reviving the national economy.

In a video message on Twitter, Shaukat Tarin said that Ahsan Iqbal has not brought any new ideas in the name of Turn Around Conference as he had given the same initiative during the previous tenure of the PML-N government which proved to be a failure.

He said that Iqbal had given the vision of 2010 and 2025 in which the PML-N government set an export target of $50 billion in the first five years and then increased it to $100 billion in the 10 years. Tarin said that the PML-N, in its previous tenure during 2013-18, managed to achieve the export rate from $25 billion to $21 billion and then $24.5 billion of exports were recorded in its last year of the government.

The former finance minister said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came into power in 2018 and made efforts to stabilise the national economy and collected achievements in almost all sectors. He detailed that GDP, agriculture, manufacturing, services, exports, remittances, tax collection growth were highest in 17 years.

Tarin said that the PML-N regime gave blows to the economy within a month. He advised Ahsan Iqbal to discuss how to get back to the point of initiation of the previous PTI government and then formulate a plan during the Turn Around Conference to stabilise the economy.

Objectives of TAC

On June 25, the Ministry of Planning Development & Special Initiatives announced to host Turn Around Conference (TAC) with the objective of gathering the nation together to find solutions to the country’s current socio-economic issues.

These solutions would be aimed at short-term results; if substantial these due deliverance compact ideas can be extended on to mid and long-term objectives, according to the state news agency.

The conference will be held on June 28 at Convention Center which will be graced by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif as the chief guest, according to a press release issued on Saturday by the Planning Ministry.

The prime objective of the conference is to engage all the relevant stakeholders which hold the development sector together with the nation.

“The aim is to take input, understand and resolve hurdles in Economic Growth in order to place country’s economy back on track”, said the Federal Minister for Planning Development & Special Initiatives, Professor Ahsan Iqbal.

Currently, Pakistan is facing many external and internal challenges which are further compounded by the existing commodity super-cycle and the geopolitical situation. As the economic growth does not offer enough opportunities for national progress, short-term measures can act as a catalyst for speeding up the growth.

The current Socio-economic landscape of Pakistan calls for tactical solutions to address Economic problems. Hence, A quick round of wider and inclusive consultations of experts belonging to diversified fields can be helpful in providing solutions to come out of this economic quagmire.

The government has already taken necessary short-term actions to stabilize the economy and deal with the looming balance of payments crisis. However, the government’s focus is to ferret out the medium to long-term solutions to optimise the country’s economy to tap its full potential in line with Vision 2025.

Moreover, participation of stakeholders from all walks of life is ensured including representatives of Political Parties, Federal Ministries, Provincial Governments, National and International Private Sector Entrepreneurs, International Development and Financial Institutions, Academia, Think Tanks, Independent Experts, NGOs and other parts of Civil society of the country to produce result-oriented and focused solutions for bringing a turnaround in the economy of Pakistan.