Federal Minister for commerce Naveed Qamar encourage for a change in the policies for a secure and sustainable future of our generations, while learning from the past.
The minister was addressing at silver jubilee celebrations of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here.
The Federal Minister said that Pakistan needs to rely on local resources and skills for overcoming pressing challenges like climate change, economic crisis, and overcoming the devastating flood losses.
The Minister noted that the country in 2010 and 2011 witnessed floods but after a decade the same occurred whereas if we had to repeat the same things then it was wrong with the governance model.
Naveed Qamar said that if we look back on the past 75 years, a couple of friendly countries have supported Pakistan but we should not look towards other countries’ support and take durable steps for the development of our country.
“We must exhibit commitment towards strengthening democracy and protection of the people’s rights so that they feel ownership being citizen of this great country,” he added.
“The world helps us or not we will have to support our people within our limited resources.
The flood losses estimates by Pakistan accounts for $32 billion and the world estimates $16 billion but no one knows how much will be gathered. The most of the funding will be coming from within.”
Commenting on the rising global warming, he said the world had to change its behavior and stop overeating the planet and cut its galloping carbon emissions.
He said the country has pledged to convert its energy mix over renewables which is ambitious and rightly decided as it cannot afford power generation on import based resources.
The minister said “We must restore trust and confidence of the people over all our institutions observing their constitutional roles. We need to give preference to rule of law and merit.
Above all we need to opt for the Charter of Economy and Climate Change in line with the Agenda 2030- SDGs.
If we did not look beyond 75 and baggage of the past, we cannot ‘Build Future Better”, the minister added.
Naveed Qamar said governance and resilience is a big challenge which we can only address through strong cooperation as we have shown at the COP27 in Sharm EI Sheikh.
He said, “We cannot ignore the impacts of climate change which have heightened socioeconomic crises in terms of extreme meteorological events causing disasters and Pakistan is the worst among hardly hit countries”.
The minister said the region has good news in terms of setting up of the Loss and Damage Fund at the COP27.
He said I have been part of Pakistan’s team led by the Prime Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif which played a key role along with the countries hailing from the G77 plus China group to push for setting up of the Fund.
Commerce minister said that when we talk about Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and say that ‘no one is left behind’ then the rich countries should not leave the developing countries on the mercy of the climatic hazards and economic shocks.
The minister appreciated the SDPI for completing 25 years of its inception and said, “I am delighted to know that 350 speakers from 17 countries presented their papers and thoughts during the last four days in various sessions.”
