September 3, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Saani24,1423

LAHORE, Sept 2: Claiming that the economy has shown signs of recovery in the past few years, Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood here on Monday said several years of transparency and good governance were required to consolidate the reforms introduced by the government.

Speaking at the opening of a four-day international exhibition of carpets, the minister said the economy is still facing several challenges including unemployment. It will take some years before the country overcomes these problems. He added the government had already introduced effective steps to reform, deregulate, abolish subsidies, and open up the economy in the last few years. But, he said, it requires continuation of the reforms and policies in the coming years to achieve the desired results.

The carpet display is held by the Pakistan Carpet Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PCMEA) in collaboration with the EPB.

Around 50 stalls have been put up at the display that is being visited by some 100 foreign buyers and importers from Europe, the US, Canada, Far East and other countries.

Dawood urged the foreign investors to invest in this country, saying the reality was “entirely different from what is portrayed by foreign television networks about Pakistan”.

“The problem of law and order does exist in our cities. But it is not worse than the situation in mega cities around the globe.” Further, he said, the country had been able to reduce its foreign debt burden by $2 billion to $36 billion and shore up its foreign exchange reserves to over $7 billion as a result of reforms. “The government has and is taking steps to restore business confidence and improve the investment climate.”

He called upon foreign buyers not to press for discount in the prices of carpets as the government has already abolished subsidy offered to the industry in the past years.

EPB chairman Tariq Ikram was hopeful that the country would be able to attain the export target of $10.4 billion for the current fiscal year of 2002-03. He said the exporters had worked hard for maintaining the export level during the last year at the level of previous year despite difficult conditions after 9/11.

He acknowledged that exporters had gotten Rs50 billion less in 2001-02 due to appreciation of the rupee against the dollar. He said the government was taking measures to boost exports.