ISLAMABAD:
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Sunday presented the IMF’s recent “Diagnostic Report on Governance and Corruption” as an opportunity to accelerate institutional reforms, insisting that the assessment should be seen as a catalyst rather than a critique of government policy.
Addressing a press conference, he said the government itself had requested and facilitated the study as part of its commitment to transparency, noting that the IMF had recognized progress in taxation, governance, public financial management and procurement.
Although many priority reforms are already underway, he added, the remaining recommendations will be put forward to address structural weaknesses that have persisted for decades. “Institutional reform remains essential to support Pakistan’s economic recovery,” he said.
Aurangzeb stressed that structural reforms without institutional strengthening would remain incomplete. He linked this approach to the government’s broader shift towards a private sector-focused and export-led growth model, citing the abolition of the export development surcharge as a key example of this policy direction.
“The decision to end the 0.25 per cent levy, as well as overhaul the governance of the Export Development Fund, reflects the Prime Minister’s directive to place the private sector at the center of economic expansion,” he said. The summary for cabinet approval, he noted, has already been submitted and its implementation will begin immediately once approved.
The minister said recent economic indicators indicated improving dynamics, with production of cement increasing by 16%, fertilizer by 9%, petroleum by 4%, automobiles by 31% and mobile phone manufacturing by 26% between July and October.
Large-scale manufacturing, he continued, grew 4.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, reversing last year’s contraction. He warned, however, that the challenge was to maintain growth without returning to boom-and-bust cycles driven by external pressures.
Aurangzeb said exports grew 5%, while IT services grew more than 20% year-on-year, recording consecutive monthly highs in September and October. He described the $3.5 billion syndication linked to Reko Diq – now financially closed – as a transformational investment that is expected to generate nearly $3 billion in annual exports once production begins.
Remittances, he said, reached $38 billion last year and are expected to exceed $41 billion this year, strengthening the current account. “Imports were managed under a reformed tariff regime aimed at improving competitiveness by prioritizing raw materials and intermediate goods while phasing out protectionism over four to five years.”
