ISLAMABAD: Former federal minister and PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal has claimed that the PTI government has delayed its decision to seek a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), so the monetary organization has decided to reject its terms. Has come into position, knowing that Islamabad had done away with everything else. authorities.
In an interview with The News on Wednesday, Ahsan Iqbal said, “If the government had decided in time to join the IMF program, it could have negotiated to protect its interests, but the ruling government decided first. The ruling government had decided to go for the IMF program after eliminating all options, so the IMF decided its policies. Finally, the government allowed the IMF to impose all the conditions. He said that financial space has been reduced, so first of all, he consolidated the development budget. Debt servicing due to increase in interest rates is Rs 1,500 billion. It has doubled to Rs 2,900 billion, so the financial space has deteriorated drastically. He added, “The reduction in financial space has also had a negative impact on the implementation of CPEC projects.”
In response to another question for the CPEC in the future, Ahsan Iqbal replied that after the CPEC, the ambassadors of the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and other ambassadors expressed their desire to be part of the CPEC. However, investor confidence was shattered by the negative epidemics it posed. “At the moment, 80 million jobs are being transferred from China and if Pakistan’s share goes up to 6-7 million, our youth can get jobs,” he said. It is unfortunate that due to the weak economic situation, Pakistan was no longer an attractive destination for investment, so we need to understand that our competition is with Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Bangladesh. He said that if elections were held and the country got a stable government, the Chinese commitment would last till 2030, so Pakistan could reap the benefits of CPEC with full force.
The former Federal Minister said that CPEC is a great gift for Pakistan and it is a game changer project as it involved three phases from 2014 to 2030. The first phase was aimed at filling the infrastructure gap in energy and infrastructure. When Pakistan provided assistance to NATO, Islamabad did not receive any transit fees, it damaged the infrastructure of our roads. He said that Gwadar port was not fully concentrated in front of CPEC. In the first phase, starting from 2014 to 2020, he said the infrastructure gap has been filled and connectivity between Pakistan and China will be improved. In the second phase, from 2020 to 2025, the two sides agreed to promote industrial cooperation as nine Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were to be implemented by 2020.
.
