Islamabad: Pakistan has come a long way through ups and downs in its 70 years, but it is still strong and moving ahead as the sixth most populous country of 200 million people.

In 70 years, although the country has exhibited significant economic growth with a phenomenal increase in the quantum of inherited infrastructure, it continues to lag behind in the sphere of human and social capital development and national cohesion.

To propel Pakistan forward in the global economy, Professor Ahsan Iqbal, as minister for planning, created a Vision 2025, which sets concrete goals for the country with the objective to put Pakistan among the top 25 economies of the world by 2025 and among the top 10 high income economies by 2047.

Vision 2025 is an ambitious plan, and according to it, poverty will be reduced by half from current levels.

Annual foreign direct investment will be raised from $600 million (Dh2.2 billion) to over $1.5 billion and tax to GDP ratio will be boosted from 9.8 per cent to 18 per cent.

The more daunting task the government has set for itself is to increase annual exports from $25 billion to $150 billion by 2025.

Pakistan has suffered from energy shortages and the plan envisions double the power generation to over 45,000 megawatts to provide uninterrupted and affordable electricity and increase electricity access from 67 per cent to over 90 per cent of the population.

“It is my conviction that Pakistan is well poised to emerge as one of the fastest growing economies in South Asia,” said Professor Iqbal, Pakistan’s minister of interior.

Political stability

He further said political stability is the key to keep Pakistan on the right track. “Pakistan is again at a take-off stage and our goal is to create a modern economy,” he said. “All successful countries and organisations have achieved success by developing shared visions.”

Pakistan Vision 2025 also aims at substantial expansion in levels of education as well as improvements in the quality of education. The target is to raise public expenditure on education by 4 per cent of GDP by 2018.

Under this plan, higher education coverage will be increased from 7 per cent to 12 per cent and number of PhDs from 7,000 to 15,000.

Ninety per cent of the population will get access to improved sanitation and the infant mortality rate will be reduced from 74 to less than 40 per 1,000 births and maternal mortality rate will be cut from 276 to less than 140 per 1000 births.