ISLAMABAD, Aug 28: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal on Friday said Pakistan’s central economic challenge was to convert macroeconomic stability into sustained growth, higher productivity, exports, investment and employment.
He expressed these views while addressing a visiting delegation of Harvard Business School (HBS) MBA students, a news release said.
Welcoming the delegation to the Ministry of Planning and Development, the minister said Pakistan should not be viewed merely through the prism of its challenges, but through the scale of its underlying potential.
With a population of nearly 260 million, a large youth cohort, a strategic geographic location, considerable agricultural and mineral resources, an expanding digital economy and a strong global diaspora, he said the country possessed significant foundations for long-term economic progress.
He said Pakistan must break the recurring cycle of “boom, external account pressure, stabilization and slowdown” by restructuring the economy around productivity and exports.
“Stabilization is necessary, but stabilization alone is not development. Pakistan cannot austerity its way to prosperity. We have to earn our prosperity through productivity, innovation, investment and exports,” Ahsan Iqbal said.
The minister briefed the delegation on URAAN Pakistan, the government’s national transformation framework built around the 5Es: Exports, Enterprise and Employment; E-Pakistan and the digital economy; Environment, Climate Change, Food and Water Security; Energy and Infrastructure; and Equity, Ethics and Empowerment.
He said Pakistan had set the ambition of becoming a $1 trillion economy by 2035, but stressed that the objective was not simply to achieve a numerical GDP target.
“The real question is what Pakistan will be capable of producing and selling competitively to the world in 2035 that it cannot produce today. Development is ultimately about building national capabilities,” he said.
Ahsan Iqbal identified productivity, quality and innovation as critical determinants of Pakistan’s future competitiveness. He said the government was seeking to build a national culture around Productivity, Quality and Innovation (PQI) so that “Made in Pakistan” increasingly became associated globally with reliability, quality and value.
Highlighting the importance of human capital, he said Pakistan’s greatest resource was its people and warned that a young population could become a demographic liability unless supported by education, nutrition, healthcare, skills and employment.
“Human capital is our most important infrastructure. The enduring strength of advanced economies lies not only in physical assets but in the intellectual software generated by their universities, research institutions and innovation ecosystems,” he said.
The minister said artificial intelligence was creating a historic opportunity for developing economies, but countries that failed to develop technological capabilities risked falling on the wrong side of a new global intelligence divide.
Pakistan, he added, must become not merely a consumer of emerging technologies but a producer and adapter of technologies in areas such as AI, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, agriculture and space sciences.
Speaking on climate change, he said Pakistan’s experience had demonstrated that climate resilience could no longer be treated as a separate environmental issue, as it directly affected fiscal stability, food security, infrastructure, public health and poverty.
He also highlighted the evolving role of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, saying that while CPEC’s first phase focused substantially on infrastructure and energy, its next phase must increasingly centre on industrial cooperation, technology transfer, agriculture, exports and business-to-business partnerships.
Ahsan Iqbal told the delegation that the government alone could not deliver national transformation. The modern state, he said, must increasingly function as a catalyst, convenor, regulator and enabler, while the private sector drives entrepreneurship, innovation and competitive investment.
Referring to the political economy of reform, he said one of Pakistan’s most important requirements was continuity of policies over an extended period.
“Successful nations may follow different economic models, but they share one common characteristic: continuity of direction. Economic development is the compound interest of good policies consistently implemented over time,” he said.
The minister asked the HBS students to view Pakistan as an investment and entrepreneurship opportunity and encouraged them to examine the gap between the country’s present performance and its considerable potential.
Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan’s development journey was ultimately about expanding opportunities for its citizens.
“The true measure of development is whether a young Pakistani, irrespective of gender, geography or family income, can acquire a quality education, develop a valuable skill, find productive employment, start a business and confidently imagine a better future. That is the Pakistan we are working to build,” he said.
He invited the visiting students to return to Pakistan in the future not only as visitors but as investors, entrepreneurs and partners in the country’s economic transformation, and to work for one year to apply their knowledge to Pakistan’s development.
