ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Monday the government’s focus was on building an ecosystem to support growth that is sustainable, led by the private sector and is export-driven.
He was addressing a ceremony during which two accords were signed — a reinsurance agreement between the Islamic Corporation for Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC) and Pak EXIM Bank, and a Rs3 billion SME risk-pool agreement between the bank and the Export Development Fund (EDF).
He described the launch of the reinsurance partnership and the SME risk pool as a milestone in translating the government’s export strategy into action.
The minister said Pakistan had moved from stabilisation towards growth, but the key challenge now was to ensure its sustainability.
“The economy has recorded around 3.7 per cent growth in FY26 and the government hopes to take it beyond 4pc this year,” Mr Aurangzeb said.
The country could no longer afford the boom-and-bust cycles associated with import dependency and balance of payment pressures, he added.
He said the government’s objective was to break with the past by ensuring that future growth was driven primarily by exports and led by the private sector.
“The main challenge for us is not growth. It’s the sustainability of that growth,” he said, emphasising that export-led growth and the private sector’s leading role in it were the two essential ingredients for long-term economic stability.
He said the government’s job was to provide an enabling ecosystem and to utilise the fiscal and external account space available to advance the export agenda. The recently approved federal budget, he added, had provided a clear direction for supporting export-oriented growth.
The minister highlighted a number of measures taken by the government, including reduction in super tax, with the rate reduced to zero for companies exporting more than 80pc of their output, abolition of advance tax and efforts to make energy rates more competitive.
Availability of export financing
The finance minister pointed to the availability of export financing at 4.5pc, saying the government had effectively addressed concerns regarding the competitiveness of financing for exporters in the region.
Mr Aurangzeb said Exim Bank had a critical role in channeling export refinance and long-term financing facilities enabled through the budget.
He said a generous amount had been allocated for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to ensure that businesses supplying larger exporters could also benefit from subsidised financing.
Such support, he added, was essential for expanding the country’s export capacity and enabling more enterprises to participate in international trade.
The minister emphasised that Pakistan needed to diversify its export base in terms of products, services and markets, rather than relying solely on traditional export sectors.
Referring to the reinsurance partnership with ICIEC, he said it would bring international expertise in credit and political-risk mitigation to EXIM Bank, upgrade its capacity, confidence and credibility. “Pakistan should benefit from international best practices rather than reinventing the wheel,” Mr Aurangzeb observed, adding that such partnerships would help accelerate the country’s institutional development in export financing and risk management.
Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2026
