KARACHI:Speaking at “ The Future Summit”, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar Chairperson of Pakistan Stock Exchange and former governor State Bank of Pakistan described climate change as a serious challenge also for Pakistan, which demanded serious corrective measures at the governments and the society level.
New legislation on climate would be required to better handle the emerging climatic changes at global level, she said.
She regretted that for getting timely benefits, future of the country should not be put on risk.
More funds be released for environment programmes and that soft and maximum financing be ensured for green and environment-friendly projects. Such financing was fast increasing in the world and also the Central Banks had adopted this mode of financing. On the demand of their international buyers, big companies in the country were switching over to green energy and other environment friendly fuels.
“We shall have to clean our economy from carbon at the earliest,” she asserted adding that there was need for switching over the economy to alternate source of fuel to escape further climate challenges.
She was of the opinion that the countries like Pakistan would have to increase their budget for infrastructure development up to 30 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP).
She emphasised on promoting insurance schemes as majority of the population of the country was without insurance coverage. The government should have to get the insurance companies listed on PSX as in 2021 many listed companies had made record profits.
PSX Chairperson informed that the management was working on further reforms in the exchange and soon the investors would be provided easy mobile accounts. With the support of the line institutions, PSX was working on making the corporate governance of the listed companies further transparent.
Chief Executive Officer of Pakistan Business Council Ehsan Malik praised the government’s policies and steps to deal with COVID-19 epidemic situation and that SBP’s initiatives saved the country from economic crisis rather strengthened the economy.
He expressed his satisfaction on the law and order situation in the country.
He said the government would have to take revolutionary measures to boost exports manifold as it was the only solution for economic challenges to the country. Pakistan would also have to focus agriculture to be self-sufficient in food.
He said it was PBC which gave theory of “ Made-in Pakistan.”
Former chief of Pakistan Air Force, Air Marshal (Retd) Sohail Aman emphasised that as a nation we should convert challenges into opportunities. Those who wanted to change the world had to face challenges.
He said the people should be provided big platforms to perform instead of being confined to micro-management.
He described the summit as an avenue to get much information on different counts. And, that such programmes be frequently held for sharing of latest knowledge including researches done at national and international levels.