Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday unveiled Uraan Pakistan, a “homegrown” national economic transformation plan spanning 2024-29, which aims to revive the country’s economy.
The five-year plan seeks to address economic challenges through a target approach focusing on the “Five Es”—exports, e-Pakistan; equity and empowerment; environment, food and water security; and energy and infrastructure.
“The crux is that in the last nine months, we negotiated huge challenges, difficulties and through untiring efforts of the federal and provincial governments and our partners in prosperity and progress, we have been able to achieve macroeconomic stability,” said the prime minister at an event formally launching the new plan. “But this is just the beginning of a long journey, which would entail sacrifice, blood and sweat to achieve economic growth and find our lost place among nations,” he added.
Stressing on “unity of thought and action,” Sharif detailed the economic challenges inherited by his government, regretting that it had to opt for another bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Hoping the loan would prove Pakistan’s last from the global lender, he said it was time to address the reasons behind economic strife. He pointed to losses of state-owned enterprises, the circular debt, and corruption as key drivers for the struggling economy.
According to the prime minister, the country can achieve economic growth by making inputs cheaper, encouraging investment, and removing curbs on imports to encourage competition, efficiency, and export-led growth. “Export-led growth is the ultimate savior of Pakistan,” he emphasized. “You need to earn dollars, which is only possible through exports,” he said, adding this was a central plan of Uraan Pakistan.
Sharif emphasized the need to promote and expand the digital and technology sectors, particularly the use and adoption of artificial intelligence. He also called for political stability to advance privatization of state-owned enterprises. “We faced a setback in PIA’s privatization. Facts should be accepted. There is no doubt our team made full efforts and we are doing so again,” he said.
Explaining that the government must aim to secure annual investment of $10 billion, he admitted this was easier said than done. To attract foreign investment, he said, local investment must be facilitated first, maintaining measures were underway to achieve this.
Seeking Progress
Also addressing the event, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar called for burying “petty politics” to achieve progress. “We talked about a charter of economy multiple times between 2013-2017 but it fell on deaf ears,” he recalled, regretting the country had fallen from the 24th to the 47th largest economy of the world.
Reiterating his belief that Pakistan can still join the G-20 nations, he stressed that achieving this goal required remaining on track. This, he emphasized, required national ownership of the economic roadmap.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, meanwhile, noted the “significant macroeconomic progress” of the past 12-14 months. “We have to move towards growth, but it has to be sustainable growth. We cannot continue to be in boom and bust cycles,” he said. “Because we’ve been an import-based economy,” he continued, noting that the country had repeatedly encountered balance of payment issues every time the economy surged over four percent, requiring new IMF loans.
“We need to move towards growth, under the leadership of PM Shehbaz, but on the back of fundamental reforms which have remained elusive for us and are imperative for sustained growth,” he said, praising the decision to opt for homegrown solutions.
The Homegrown Reform Economic Committee established in May, he said, had extensively reviewed previous economic plans to prepare its own initiative. The new plan, he explained, primarily focused on stimulating private investment, boosting exports, and optimizing public finances.
“There is going to be a separate tax policy unit which is in the process of being created, which will independently report to the Ministry of Finance. We’re separating policy from collection,” he said, stressing on policy continuity. “Tax leakages will be plugged through the use of data analytics, and the privatization process will be accelerated,” he said.
Under the plan, said Aurangzeb, the government aimed to achieve sustainable GDP growth of 6 percent by 2028, creating one million additional jobs annually, securing additional $10 billion in private investment annually, and hitting an export target of $60 billion by FY2028. He maintained the new plan came with a comprehensive implementation mechanism.
Uraan Pakistan
Earlier, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar issued a statement explaining that Uraan Pakistan was an all inclusive agenda that would government the country’s journey of economic development. He said the economic reforms agenda was for the development of Pakistan and its people.
Stressing that Pakistan had moved from the verge of default to stability, he said it was now on the path to progress.