April 2, 2002	Tuesday	Muharram 18,1423

ISLAMABAD, April 1: The 10th meeting of Economic Advisory Board (EAB) will be held in the last week of this month to extensively discuss the removal of irritants specially those blocking the local and foreign investment in the country.

The meeting to be presided over by President Gen Pervez Musharraf will receive the feedback from eight different committees recently constituted for removing irritants both at the federal and provincial level.

“The prime focus of the meeting will be to make sure that existing bottlenecks and irritants in the way of investors are removed,” said Additional Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Dr. Waqar Masood Khan.

Talking to Dawn here on Monday, the secretary said that deregulation was an important element for economic revival which was being dealt at the highest level.

He said the provinces had been directed to have minimum laws and restrictions in order to facilitate the investment.

Responding to a question, Dr. Waqar said that EAB was giving its inputs on various issues and it was incorrect to presume that it was moving slowly. Various budgetary proposals incorporated in the current budget were taken from the experts of the Economic Advisory Board, he added.