) of the economy to match rising demand. saving rate has now been historically low and a combination of policies including a country wide campaign through incentives can help encourage savings. this among others requires to maintain high and stable real interest rate, which given the current high inflationary environment is only possible with high nominal interest rates. in turn, a higher production level in the economy will encourage more savings. the challenge in this context is to remain vigilant about controlling consumption through counter cyclical policies. recognizing the need to bring the twin deficits within sustainable levels and to increase national savings, the new government will need to strengthen the medium - term macroeconomic stabilization program and front load it, while accelerating the implementation of structural reforms. these steps will be crucial to re - invigorate growth and strengthen economic resilience. keeping this in perspective, the government ’ s broader economic strategy for the next few years will need to include : i. increasing domestic resource mobilization to raise revenue / gdp ratio by at least 5 percentage points of gdp. this is possible given the scope for enlargement of tax base, removal of exemptions and further strengthening of tax administration. the existing tax regime collects almost 68 % of taxes from manufacturing and corporate sector, while agriculture and services sectors ( aside from banks ) are exempt and some segments of the economy are outside the tax net. ii. restricting large proportion of new resource mobilized for public investment, while prioritizing the recurrent expenditures through a major overhauling of the government machinery. iii. restoring the momentum of privatization of state - owned enterprises, which has been one of the most successful in asia. the government has sold off cumulatively almost $ 7 billion of assets over fy2000 - fy2008 and there are around 61 state entities in the pipeline. iv. providing more autonomy to public sector organizations, with effective leadership and management, to improve their operational and financial efficiencies accompanied by a program to strengthen their balance sheets which should allow them to graduate from budgetary allocations to seeking funding from the market. v. and raising private investment / gdp from 23 % to at least 28 % which involves significant tapping of additional resources both from domestic and international financial markets. to address the structural weaknesses that are inhibiting pakistan ’ s long term growth there is need for : ( i ) exploiting agriculture sector, a key driver for economy, to regain food self sufficiency. conserving agriculture land and dealing with land holding and enti

their remarkable support in collaborating with sbp for organizing this event. fao has long played a strong role for the development of agriculture sector in pakistan through introduction of innovation and technical assistance and this event is a mark of their continued commitment to the cause of developing an exceedingly vibrant agriculture sector in pakistan. i am also grateful to ukaid for their continued and long - term support to advance financial inclusion in pakistan. let me also express our gratitude to asia - pacific rural and agricultural credit association ( apraca ) for the importance and attention that you always give to pakistan and sbp in the regional initiatives. ladies & gentlemen, 13. i wish you all a pleasant participation in the conference and hope that this experience will invigorate the spirit of transformation that challenges the conventional beliefs and fosters innovative thinking to find lasting solutions to the problems of agriculture - financing. thank you our chief guest senator muhammad ishaq dar, finance minister, and the guest of honour federal minister mr. sikandar malik bosan, and all the participants and speakers! bis central bankers ’ speeches