Skip to main content

Present govt should not be blamed for debt spike: Hafeez

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh has said that blaming the current government for a phenomenal increase in public debt is unfair because it is also paying the loans obtained by the previous governments.

Talking to the media after addressing a two-day “First Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Capital Market Regulators Forum” here on Thursday, Dr Sheikh said Pakistan was going through transformation as the present government had inherited a massive debt burden.

“Consequently, there is an increase in debt servicing and it will be unfair to blame the incumbent government for adding more debt. There is a need to consider the fact that out of total revenue collection of Rs3.8 trillion in the last fiscal year, around Rs2.3tr was transferred to the provinces, while Rs2.1tr was for debt servicing,” he said, adding that the government had to take loan for running government, for defence and development projects.

“For the current fiscal year, we have earmarked Rs2.9tr for debt servicing and even the loans taken by previous governments will have to be owned by the present government,” he added.

Addressing a forum, PM’s adviser says capital markets can play key role in economic growth

Earlier addressing the forum, Dr Sheikh said capital markets could play a key role in financing economic growth by facilitating trade and investment flows. “As economies develop and investment projects become larger and more complex, efficient resource allocation and risk-sharing are facilitated by the development of capital markets,” he added.

The PM’s adviser said the government believed in transparency and the capital market was important for development of the private sector, while transparency in the capital market could be further increased with improvement in regulations. “Economic recovery is not an easy task as revenue is declining and despite some improvement a lot is needed to be done,” he added.

The forum was jointly organised by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Central Depository of Pakistan and National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited to discuss ways on how to improve capital markets by enhancing access to finance, supporting private sector development, spurring economic activities and strengthening regional cooperation and integration.

The speakers highlighted that the financial sector in most CAREC countries had been dominated by traditional financial institutions such as banks.

Capital markets in the region are also lagging behind, with some CAREC members ranked low in market capitalisation, according to the 2018 Global Competitiveness Report.

The CAREC Programme is a partnership of 11 countries — Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — to promote economic growth and development through regional cooperation.

ADB Vice President Shixin Chen said the forum underscored the need to build strong and meaningful cooperation among the capital markets of CAREC members. “The region needs much more financing and investments than public sector resources can alone provide,” he said, adding: “Mobilisation of private sector funds, including through capital markets and long-term institutional resources, is critical to meeting development financing gaps of the CAREC region.”

SECP Chairman Amir Khan, in his welcome speech, said the forum was the first step to develop a strong network of capital market regulators in the CAREC region by providing an avenue for capital market regulators to exchange ideas and share best practices, besides promoting an inclusive reform agenda for attracting private capital for development and growth across the region.

“We have all witnessed how enhanced regional integration can work to the advantage of those who collaborate; it is time to jointly work for building synergies and pooling resources to achieve a shared success,” he added.

Mr Khan stressed the need for integration as an engine for growth, embracing technology as an enabler, linking capital markets with real economy and reducing regulatory barriers.

The forum included panel sessions and open discussions covering country case studies, as well as specific topics such as lessons from capital markets integration, derivative market development and financial technology’s regulatory and regional implications.

Representatives from the ministries of finance, central banks, capital market supervisory bodies from all CAREC countries and relevant industry professionals participated as panelists in various sessions to share and discuss best international practices with the participants.

Since its inception in 2001, the CAREC Programme has invested heavily in improving regional connectivity, promoting energy trade and facilitating regional trade. In 2017, a new long-term strategy — CAREC 2030 — was adopted by the 11 countries to expand the objective of the programme for strengthening economic and financial stability, including by promoting cooperation among capital markets and strengthening the investment climate in Central Asia.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2019



from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/2L632Bt
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trump says he urged team to ‘slow’ COVID-19 testing

US President Donald Trump said Saturday he was encouraging health officials in his administration to slow down coronavirus testing, arguing that increased tests lead to more cases being discovered. The president has claimed falsely on several occasions that surges of COVID-19 in several states can be explained by greater numbers of diagnostic tests. At his first rally since the outbreak forced nationwide shutdowns in March, Trump told the crowd in Tulsa, Oklahoma that testing was a “double-edged sword.” The United States — which has more deaths and cases than any other country — has carried out more than 25 million coronavirus tests, placing it outside the top 20 countries in the world, per capita. “Here is the bad part: When you do testing to that extent, you are going to find more people, you will find more cases,” Trump argued. “So I said to my people ‘slow the testing down.’ They test and they test.” It was not clear from Trump’s tone if he was playing to the crowd, who ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sir Anwer Pervez, richest Pakistani British businessman, loses £432m in pandemic

Sir Anwar Pervez OBE, the founder and chairman of Bestway Cash & Carry has lost £432 million during the coronavirus pandemic to bring him down to No 50 on the richest British people list. The list has 1,000 people and is published by the Sunday Times newspaper . Pervez was at No 42 previously.  The 2020 list of the UK’s richest shows its first fall in wealth in a decade as Britain’s wealthiest people lost tens of billions of pounds in the coronavirus pandemic, the Sunday Times reported in its Rich List 2020. The newspaper, which has produced the respected annual ranking of the country’s 1,000 wealthiest people since 1989, found the past two months had resulted in the super-rich losing £54 billion ($65 billion). More than half of the billionaires in Britain had seen drops in their worth by as much as £6b, a decrease in their collective wealth unprecedented since 2009 and the financial crisis. The Hinduja brothers, who topped last year’s list with a £22b fortune, saw among ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Despite reservations about jury, Pakistan to implement FATF reforms: envoy

WASHINGTON: Despite its reservations about the fairness of the jury which is to determine Pakistan’s performance against terror financing, the government is committed to implementing its action plan for dealing with this issue, says Islamabad’s Washington envoy Asad Majeed Khan. In a conversation with a prominent US scholar George Perkovich, recorded at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington on Monday afternoon, Ambassador Khan said the actions that Pakistan had taken so far to eliminate terror financing were “reflective of the political will”. “We feel that we have done a lot. We are also clear and determined to do more,” said the envoy while responding to a question about a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) held in Orlando last week, which asked Pakistan to implement its own action plan for eliminating terror financing by October. Failing to do so could put Pakistan on a blacklist of violators and bring strict economic sanctions too. “But we w...
Post a Comment
Read more