960423

Average Growth

rate quite

respectable

:Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan's average economic growth rate of six percent annually over the years was quite respectable.

This was stated by the Minister on the opening day of the Ministerial segment of the 52nd Annual Session of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP), in Bangkok on Monday.

He was also elected as Vice Chairman of the Commission for the year 1996. Theme topic for this year's session was "Rural poverty alleviation and sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific." Briefing about the Economic situation of Pakistan, he said that Economic and Social Survey and Asia and the Pacific 1996 indicates that Pakistan's growth performance upto 1992 was well over 7 percent annum. If Pakistan's growth rate during the last 40 years in tabulated it gives an average figure of about 6 percent which is quite respectable when compared with other countries in South Asia.

The Minister said the bane of poverty which mostly afflicts the developing countries continues to be a source of great concern and discontent the world over. That is why we are marking 1996 as the International year for the Eradication of Poverty. Rapid and sustainable economic progress could be achieved in the region by (a) resorting to pacific settlement of disputes and accrual of the benefit of the peace dividend (b) promoting the productive use of the most abundant asset of the poor namely labour and (c) providing basic social services to them which include primary health care, family planning, nutrition and education, he added.

The Minister added that in the coming decades sustained economic growth and thus higher consumption standards, will depend more heavily on successful human development.-APP