By Asad Cheema
ISLAMABAD: President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) Muhammad Shakeel Munir has welcomed the IMF’s staff-level agreement with Pakistan and termed it a positive development.
Muhammad Shakeel Munir addressing a meeting of ICCI Executive Committee said that the economy of Pakistan was facing very serious problems as its foreign exchange reserves were fast depleting amid rising external debt servicing, which required some out of the box solutions to address such problems.
Muhammad Shakeel Munir said that Pakistan’s external debt servicing has reportedly increased to over $10 billion in the first three quarters of 2021-22 compared to $13.38 billion in the entire financial year 2021.
He said that Pakistan needed urgent help for its external debt-servicing obligations that are reportedly projected to be $23 billion in 2022-2023.
He said this situation demanded that the government in consultation with stakeholders should devise a new policy to boost exports in order to improve its foreign reserves.
Jamshaid Akhtar Sheikh Senior Vice President and Muhammad Faheem Khan Vice President ICCI said that the governments of many countries including Turkey, Bangladesh, India and others have got rid of IMF loans by adopting prudent economic policies and it is the high time that the government should make efforts to exploit indigenous resources to stabilize the economy.
They said that the government should take measures to promote ease of doing business and focus on creating a conducive business environment to generate more indigenous resources that would enable the country to become self-sufficient instead of relying on foreign borrowing to run its economy.
