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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's population growth rate has declined to 1.96% from 3.1% due to concrete steps taken by the government, Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said Saturday.

He was addressing the inaugural session of six-day international seminar on "Emerging Population Challenges-policy and Management Responses" here at a hotel. The seminar is being participated by health experts, provincial ministers, population ministry officials and lady health visitors.

Shaukat Aziz said that the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate has risen from 11% in 1990 to 34% which is praiseworthy. He said total fertility rate has decreased from 6.8 births per woman in 1980, to 4.1 births per woman today which indicates that a downward trend in fertility transition has begun. For long-term success, it needs to be sustained, he remarked.

The minister was optimistic that our endeavors and donors support will help in reducing population growth, increase education and employment opportunities and improve health of the poor. He said this marked improvements in our social sector will transform our large human resource base into social assets, and will contribute significantly to vigorous and sustained economic growth in Pakistan.

Shaukat said in addition to its own population, "our nation hosts millions of Afghan refugees, he said. "We also house another one million illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iran, Iraq and India," he added.

Unfortunately, country's large non-development commitments have prevented it from providing the support necessary to develop this unwieldy human resource. These three phenomena interact with each other to create vicious cycle that is pressuring our social system as well as the economic support system, he added. He said despite all the said handicaps, Pakistan's present government is taking bold steps to meet the challenge. The Government has chalked out a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy.

Elaborating the strategy, he said, the government wants to achieve high and broad-based economic growth focusing particularly on the rural economy, while maintaining macro economic stability. He added that improving governance and consolidating devolution, both as a means of delivering better development results and ensuring social and economic justice is also included in the strategy.