Govt to utilize all resources for sustainable economic, environmental growth: Finance Minister

ISLAMABAD, Mar 21 (APP): Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb on Friday said that the government would utilize all its resources to realized sustainable economic and environmental growth as both were correlated to each other. At present, environmental degradation and large population are major existential threats to the country’s economy, for which the government will provide all financial and technical resources so that the country’s economy can move forward, the finance minister said.
Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb said this while addressing the ceremony of ‘World Day of Glaciers’ organized by the Minister of Change and Environment in NDMA headquarter.
The minister said that at the macro-economic level, the country’s economy has achieved stability at present and in the future, all environmentally friendly measures will be taken for Sustainable economic growth, and the government will provide ample resources to the relevant institutions.
He said that due to population growth and environmental incompatibility, environmental phenomena like fog have emerged in Lahore and other big cities, which require intensive steps to resolve it.
Aurangzeb said that to make the environment sustainable in the country, “We need short-, medium-and long-term policies and the country does not have enough time to rely only on long term policies.”
He said that the super flood of 2022 is a terrible example of environmental imbalance, which has identified the big challenge of the future and has given us the alarm to deal with this existential threat.
The finance minister said that glaciers in the northern regions of Pakistan were significant for the Pakistani economy and due to environmental incompatibility, 10,000 glaciers are at risk.
He said that to deal with threats like melting of glaciers, a monitoring system and glacier protection strategy are required for glacier conservation in the country.
He said that the 10-year economic reform program being made by the government with the support of the World Bank, where environmental challenges get a more significant place, and the World Bank will provide us with full support in this regard.
The minister said that the government also provided full support from UNDP for glacier protection, which is of utmost importance.
He said that at present there was a finance gap to deal with climate change, but the government will use all resources to deal with this important challenge and give major place in policies to this issue.
Auranzeb said that the real issue is capacity building, therefore, international organizations should also provide technical resources to Pakistan in this regard.
He said that technical and financial assistance is very important to deal with climate change and the government is fully focused on it.
Finance minister said that today “We have to launch green Sukuk in a ceremony which will prove to be an important step for resolving environmental problems.
He said that in the 2022 flood, resources of $10 billion were provided from the international community, which was one-third of the total damage.
The minister said that the government was working on a plan of action, and the climate threat issue was of utmost importance.
He said that Pakistan participated in the COP 20, a forum held in Baku and many of the goals and objectives of the forum were considered and the commitment to implementation was reiterated.