Strong economy, a fundamental-pillar for national security: Ahsan Iqbal

ISLAMABAD, May 23 (APP):Minister for Interior Ahsan Iqbal Wednesday said strong economy was a fundamental-pillar for achieving national security as in modern era, wars could not be won by weapons only.
Addressing an inaugural ceremony of Research Centre for Robotics and Automation at the College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering in Rawalpindi, he said that super power Soviet Union collapsed due to weak economy and in the present era, only strong and competitive economies of the world could survive.
He said prudent policies pursued by the government have laid foundation for a vibrant and modern economy.
He said that in 2013, average GDP growth rate was 3 percent, but due to policies adopted by the government, now the average GDP growth rate is 5 percent.
The minister said “Presently, we have 5.8 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and international institutions have termed Pakistan fastest growing economy of the world. Pakistan will be among 25 top economies of the world by 2025.”
“The 21st century is the century of economic development and only those nations will survive who will make achievements on the economic front, rather than on political or defense fronts” he added.
He said “Developing economy is not a T20, but test match which requires patience, stability and peace.”
Ahsan Iqbal said that peace, stability and continuity of policies were the key elements and of vital importance to achieve fast paced economic development and prosperity.
He said “There is no country in the world that is free of the challenges and problems and every nation, when going through a development cycle, faces lot of challenges.”
He said “Pakistan is poised to takeoff and we should start to celebrate the success stories of our country.”
Ahsan Iqbal stressed the need to change mindset on national level in a bid to discard negative perception about the country and called upon the nation to prepare itself for new challenges in future.
He said political stability was the basic requirement of economic development, therefore more focus should be given on the economic development of the country.
Ahsan Iqbal said PML-N had implemented its manifesto of 4Es – Energy, Extremism, Education and Economy and our efforts had been endorsed by international financial and ranking institutions.
“Our progress in social sector has been exemplary, economic growth was the highest during last 13 years, we added over 10,000 MW power to the system and above all shattered the terrorist networks in the country.”
He said that during last 66 years, the country was generating 70 to 75 MW electricity every year but during last five years the country had produced 2500 MW electricity.
The minister said in 2013, the country was using 2 G only but the present government had made possible for the population to enjoy services of 3 G and 4 G.
He said the country was ready to adopt the services of 5 G along the world by 2020.
The minister said with removal of bottlenecks in energy sector, infrastructure development, investment of billions of dollars is coming to Pakistan and the country is take off position.
He said after building infrastructure, the present government started focusing on investing in higher sectors of economy.
“Connectively will ensure progress, prosperity development and creation of jobs” he added.
Ahsan said the government launched Pak-US Knowledge Corridor under which it had funding, on annual basis, for 1000 scholars to study in the best US universities.
“We need to ensure that the Pakistani scholars avail the opportunities being offered under this initiative to study in the best US universities.”
He said the government had launched a similar programme named UK-Pakistan Knowledge Gateway which offered Pakistani students to acquire quality higher education as well as exposure by studying in the leading UK universities.
Sharing future vision for higher education sector, the minister stressed the need for evolving a strong mechanism to annually evaluate progress on the seven pillars of Higher Education Vision 2025. The seven pillars, he added, included turning the universities into centres of excellence in instruction, research and innovation, strong academia-industry linkages, community engagement, corporate governance of higher education institutions, and producing quality products.
He emphasized on universities to develop a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Matrix to examine development on the goals set under the Vision 2025.
He said the human resource development must be aligned with the Vision 2025.
The project management needed to be given due importance to ensure proper execution of projects and utilisation of funds in future, he added.
The minister said the May, 6 coward person had attack on him but with the grace of Allah Almighty he survived and it indicted that Allah Almighty wanted to take more work from him.
“The bullet, which is stuck up in my body, will always remind me of my mission to work for progress, prosperity and development of the country,” he added.