KARACHI: Pakistan must double its exports to $60 billion within four years or risk returning to the International Monetary Fund, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Thursday, underscoring the scale of the challenge facing the country as it seeks to break its long-standing dependence on external bailouts.
The comments come as the government pushes ahead with URAAN Pakistan (Flying Pakistan), Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s flagship economic transformation plan aimed at reviving growth, improving competitiveness and strengthening external finances in an economy still vulnerable to balance-of-payments pressures.
As part of the push, Sharif has set up a high-level committee led by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar to drive implementation of the plan and propose measures to accelerate export growth.
“The only way Pakistan could avoid IMF bailouts is to raise exports to $60 billion in four years and to $100 billion over the next decade,” Iqbal told Arab News, warning that failure to sharply expand overseas sales would leave Islamabad with few alternatives.
“[The plan] includes a proposal to declare an export emergency to double export earnings to $60 billion,” he added on the mandate of the newly established economic panel, saying faster tax refunds for export-oriented sectors and the removal of structural bottlenecks would be central to the effort.
