Pakistan moving forward with ‘sense of achievement, progress’: PM

Shehbaz apprises IMF chief of improving economic indicators on WEF’s sidelines

DAVOS: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said Pakistan was moving forward with a renewed sense of “achievement and progress”, while underscoring the need to pursue export-led growth to ensure sustainable economic development.

Speaking to members of the Pakistani community and business leaders on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, the prime minister said recent economic indicators reflected improving stability.

“Our macroeconomic indicators are reassuring,” he said, noting that inflation had declined from 30% to 5.5%, while the policy rate had been reduced from 22.5% to 10.5%.

He added that Pakistan’s IT exports had shown encouraging progress, although exports continued to face multiple challenges and social indicators still required improvement through sustained collective efforts.

The prime minister said the direction ahead was “clear”, stressing that Pakistan must move towards “export-led growth”. He said the government had introduced fundamental structural reforms to strengthen the economy.

Highlighting milestones achieved by his administration, the premier said the revenue collection system had undergone major reforms and was being fully digitised. He added that the tax-to-GDP ratio had risen to 10.5p% from 9% a couple of years ago, calling it a significant achievement.

The prime minister said agricultural exports had shown promising growth and that Pakistan had entered the mines and minerals sector in a “big way”. He said agreements and memoranda of understanding had been signed with American and Chinese companies, adding that Pakistan was endowed with vast natural resources in Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

PM Shehbaz said the government had decided to move ahead “at lightning speed” and was also making rapid progress in emerging sectors such as cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence and information technology.

Regarding China, he said: “We have strong economic connections and now we have built relations with United states and as is said earlier that in the field on mines and minerals, there is great hope that we have to cooperate with each other in big way.”

He also said that Pakistan would cooperate with both countries in counter-terrorism efforts, along with IT and artificial intelligence.

The premier added that his government was moving forward with “complete transparency”. He pointed out that Pakistan International Airlines, a national asset, was recently privatised.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif apprised International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director KristalinaGeorgieva about Pakistan’s improving economic indicators in a meeting on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) sidelines on Wednesday.

A post on X by state broadcaster PTV News said the premier met the IMF chief and informed her about the improvements in Pakistan’s macroeconomic indicators, efforts for stability and progress on institutional reforms.

“He emphasised Pakistan’s commitment to fiscal discipline, revenue mobilisation and sustainable development. The IMF managing director acknowledged Pakistan’s reform efforts and commended them. She stressed the importance of maintaining the pace of reforms to ensure long-term economic resilience. Both sides exchanged views on the global economic outlook, challenges facing emerging economies, and the importance of multilateral cooperation in preserving economic stability,” the post said.

He earlier kicked off his engagements at the WEF with a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa.

A post on X by state broadcaster PTV News said the Palestinian premier expressed gratitude to Pakistan for its “consistent, principled and unwavering support” for the Palestinian people, and thanked Islamabad for backing Palestine’s position at international forums. He also acknowledged Pakistan’s role in advocating the Palestinian cause globally. Staff Report