Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Wednesday that the country lost about $34.4 billion due to the floods, adding that a multilateral donor conference on flood disasters is scheduled to be held in France.
He said this while addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Wednesday.
While thanking the international community for the assistance provided to Pakistan in this difficult time, he said that nearly 98% of the aid given by international donors has been distributed to the flood victims.
“We have some grievances related to distribution of aid which have already been resolved in the meeting between the governors and all the provinces,” he commented.
However, the finance minister reminded that Pakistan now has to develop a long-term strategy to build climate resilient infrastructure as people have seen how the infrastructure was washed away. This should be dealt with by the reconstruction sentence.
He said that Pakistan’s greenhouse gas emissions are about 3 percent of global carbon emissions.
He said that not only Pakistan but the world will have to prepare for the changed environment.
He said that we do not need such disasters in other parts of the world.
He said that this is such a big challenge that the country is facing along with the current challenge of the economy.
He further said that rehabilitation of flood victims is the first priority of the government.
Multi-Donor Conference
Dar said that the French government has already offered to host the multi-donor conference, which will be led by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif along with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We are not begging, but everyone knows that it is not our fault and all generous support will be welcomed,” he commented.
“We should make the state and its people the first priority, not politics,” he said, taking a swipe at the opposition.
Economic development
Dar said that technology will play an important role in the economic development of the country.
He further said that the development of Pakistan in all fields was excellent during the Nawaz League era.
He said that we have to take strict steps for economic development, we have already taken many steps to develop the weak economy of the country.
He added that we have fulfilled the promise of reducing electricity load shedding, earlier the country was facing 18 hours of load shedding.
He said that people should not worry, the country will not default.
Talking about the inflation, he said that the inflation is due to the governance process of the last four years as it has come down due to the measures taken in the last six months.
He said that for economic development we have to agree on the Charter of Economy.
He said that the State Bank of Pakistan will fulfill its responsibility to control the dollar rates.
