Addressing a ceremony celebrating the success of the Roshan Digital Accounts, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that Pakistan’s economic indicators had improved despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
PM Khan said that Pakistan’s exports had shown a higher increase compared to other countries in the region.
He further commented on the success of the Roshan Digital Accounts, which has now crossed $500 million in remittances.
“I want to thank our Overseas Pakistanis for responding so strongly to SBP’s #RoshanDigitalAccounts. 87,833 accounts opened from 97 countries around the world. $500 million sent to Pakistan in just 5 months. Momentum continues to rise with $243 million coming in last 6 weeks alone,” PM Khan tweeted on Tuesday.
The Roshan Digital Accounts is a joint initiative of the government and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) alongside major commercial banks operating in the country.
The main purpose of the RDA is to attract investments by overseas Pakistanis by promising much higher returns on deposits compared to returns in the developed economies.
This, he said, happened at a time when economies of other countries were badly damaged due to the COVID-19 pandemic , “Pakistan’s economy is going in a positive direction.”
“They can’t find [enough] skilled workers for textile factories in Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Sialkot,” the premier said, adding that this was all a result of the “conscious effort” of the government to increase exports and keep the rupee stable.
“Our people suffered through a tough time. We realised that until our reserves are not built up, we won’t get investment in the correct way,” he said. The long term solution for this was to “increase exports”.
PM Khan pointed out the record repayment of debt his government had achieved, saying around Rs6,000 billion in debts had been repaid.
