Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Akram Sheikh said, "The economic performance of the country for the last few years is luckily very good, however, the recent earthquake would have some adverse impact on the growth."
He said this at a workshop on "Pakistan Poverty and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Monitoring" organised by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) in collaboration with the World Bank here.
About MDGs, Akram said that to achieve these targets, people should have to go beyond personal interests for nation building. He also said that besides achieving sustainable growth, the government should also think about sustainable society.
PIDE Director A. R. Kemal said that in case the country failed to substantial receive aid from the international community the government would be compelled to delay mega projects and reduce development expenditure to rehabilitate the victims.
This dent in development expenditures and delay in mega projects would definitely affect the growth, he added.
The international community has made pledges of about $2.469 billion, but so far Pakistan has received only $211.2 million. President General Pervez Musharraf has also stressed at various platforms that Pakistan was receiving meagre response in terms of financial support for reconstruction and rehabilitation.
The Planning Commission deputy chairman said that though Pakistan achieved 8.4 percent growth, it neither perked the layman nor dented poverty. The reason was income disparity among different groups, which could only be overcome through equitable distribution of wealth.
He said "We believe in holistic and integrated approach to move toward a possible mix to improve and move forward socially and economically."
Akram also emphasised on value-addition to exportable products, which he said, could have positive impact on income and growth.
Comparing Pakistan with two East Asian countries, Malaysia and Singapore, he said that currently their exports are about $150 billion and $100 billion, respectively. But, Pakistan is in the vicinity of $15 billion due to less value-addition. Besides, the combined GDP of all the 57 Muslim countries is $1.4 trillion while the GDP of France alone is $1.6 trillion.