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Javed urges people to prop up savings level

ISLAMABAD: The Advisor to Chief Executive on National Affairs Javed Jabbar on Saturday underscored the need for propping up the level of national savings for onward investment in the formal sector.

"The challenge is how to mobilise the savings for investment in the formal sector programmes that are aimed at resolving the problems facing the people," he said at a ceremony marking the first draw of Rs 750 prize bonds here at the Central Directorate of National Savings.

Javed Jabbar said, all sections of the society will have to come forward to realise this objective. He appreciated the CDNS for its role in encouraging national savings.

Quoting a recent survey, conducted by the Agha Khan Foundation, he said the Pakistanis are a generous people who give as much as Rs 50 billion as alms every year, other than the Zakat that they pay annually.

"The need is to mobilise the people for savings which is a national cause," he said, hoping that Saturday's transparent computerised draw will be an indicator of much better savings level in the future.

The advisor said the fact that the savings scheme has fetched Rs 60 billion in three months, indicates that Pakistani people are realising the importance of this national cause.

Jabbar congratulated the CDNS on evolving a transparent and clear procedure for draw of prize bonds.

Earlier, Director General CDNS, Owais Pirzada, informed that the directorate has established an open and transparent method of holding a draw.

The method, he said, has been endorsed by the State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan Computer Bureau, Federal Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Finance.

The first prize Rupees one million in the Series A went to the holder of Prize Bond Number 367030. Five prizes of Rs 500,000 each went to the holders of Prize Bond Numbers 211403, 527674, 676693, 821555 and 966942. APP