April 28, 2017
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday said economy will expand by Rs700 billion until 2018 due to improved power generation.
Many power plants will become operational by the next year while import of LNG will be hiked by 100 percent which will improve agricultural and industrial productivity to support growth, jobs and exports, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that Pakistani economy has not crossed the annual growth rate of five percent in the last two decades while the growth rate of similar economies have remained seven to ten percent.
Our growth rate will be over five percent in the ongoing year but country needs a growth rate above eight percent for few decades to eradicate poverty, provide jobs and ensure stability for which CPEC will be of great help, he added.
The business leader said that Chinese companies are investing 35 billion dollars in power projects that are more efficient than the existing ones which will help country cut oil import bill.
The efficiency level of existing furnace oil based power plants is 28 percent while the power plants on the economic corridor will run at an efficiency level of sixty-one percent, he informed.
Moreover, eleven billion dollars are being invested in road and rail infrastructure which will help expansion in the economy.
He said that reservations expressed by some circles on the repatriation of profits by the Chinese investors are unfounded are it would be a fraction of the economic activity generated by the funds of the same companies.
