Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief had described Pakistan as a “new Pakistan,” but he responded that the change was due to a “new team” working to put the economy on a more sustainable path.

Speaking at a gong ringing ceremony for the listing of Naya Nazimabad Apartments REIT at the Pakistan Stock Exchange, Shehbaz said Pakistan must shift from its traditional economic model toward export-led growth.

He said several industrial sectors had received government subsidies since the 1960s but had failed to deliver a significant increase in exports.

According to the prime minister, the subsidy-based approach also failed to produce the desired improvements in prices, quality and productivity, while Pakistan remained unable to achieve meaningful import substitution.

Shehbaz described this as a difficult reality that needed to be addressed and called on exporters to play a greater role in building sustainable economic growth.

He said incentives provided to the construction sector were beginning to produce results, particularly in Karachi. The government had also provided Rs2.3 trillion in tax breaks to support economic activity, he added.

The prime minister said bankers in the United States and United Kingdom had appreciated the government’s economic reform efforts.

He also pointed to improvements in Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves, remittances, Eurobond activity and the performance of the Pakistan Stock Exchange as signs of progress.

Shehbaz said Pakistan now needed to maintain this momentum by focusing on exports and sustainable economic growth rather than relying on measures that had failed to deliver stronger export performance in the past.

He also thanked the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau for recovering land worth trillions of rupees and highlighted what he described as significant progress in Pakistan’s return to international capital markets