Aurangzeb reaffirms Govt’s support for privatization to mobilize private capital

Minister for Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb has reaffirmed the government’s full support for privatization and public-private partnerships to mobilize private capital. Addressing an event organized by Asian Development Bank in Islamabad today, he outlined the government’s core priorities including enabling the private sector to drive economic growth, staying the course on structural reforms and preventing a return to boom-and-bust cycles. Highlighting fiscal progress, the Finance Minister noted that revenues have grown by forty percent over the last two years, while efforts to curb expenditures remain ongoing. He stated that the tax-to-GDP ratio currently stands at ten point three percent with a short-term target of reaching eleven to twelve percent. Expressing satisfaction over the tech sector, he noted that IT exports reached 4.6 billion dollars during the last fiscal year, with freelancers contributing 1.6 billion dollars. Muhammad Aurangzeb said our target is to register an economic growth rate of over four percent for the current fiscal year. He said foreign exchange reserves stood at 18.5 billion dollars as of 30th June, with a target to reach twenty-one billion dollars by the end of this fiscal year. Addressing the event, Adviser on Privatization Muhammad Ali said there is clarity that the future of Pakistan’s economic growth will be led by the private sector in terms of businesses and not by the public sector. He mentioned that the federal Public Private Partnership Authority branded as P3A is being consolidated under the privatization division with the aim to simplify procedures, increase coordination and bring in more efficiency. The Adviser highlighted that thirty-eight projects worth six point five billion dollars are currently in PPP mode across various sectors, including roads, railways, hospital, hospitality, aviation and industrial estates. In privatization, the Adviser said they are working on twenty-seven transactions including power distribution companies, airports, insurance companies and banks. He said Pakistan has proven after the sale of PIA that it has the capability and the commitment to privatize its assets.