KARACHI, April 3: President Pervez Musharraf has reassured the investors’ community about the continuity of the government’s economic policies, saying that investment will remain the focus of attention.
This was stated by Dr Hafeez Shaikh, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Investment and Privatization, while briefing newsmen at the conclusion of a high-level meeting on investment policies and the investment environment in the country, chaired by the president at Governor’s House on Thursday.
The president also referred to the government’s performance in promoting business and investment in the past three years. He talked about the steps taken towards macro-economic reforms so as to increase investment and gave an assurance that tariff and tax related policies would be continued.
According to Mr Shaikh, President Musharraf said the cost of power generation was high and needed to be scaled down, which could be achieved by shifting power generation from furnace oil to coal and gas. The president noted that 70 per cent of power generation was based on oil, which was quite the opposite of China where about an equal percentage of power was generated by coal. He pointed out that power generation in the country was being switched to coal and the KESC would shift to gas this year, which should be reason enough for a reduction in electricity charges.
The president said that in order for investment to grow and job opportunities to be created, economic activity must pick up pace.
Besides major local investors and those from multinational organizations, others who attended the meeting included the governor of Sindh, Dr Ishrat ul Ebad, governor of Punjab, Lt-Gen (Rtd) Khalid Maqbool, Sindh chief minister, Sardar Ali Mohammed Mahar, chairman Senate, Mohammedmian Soomro, adviser to the prime minister on Finance, Shaukat Aziz, chairman Export Promotion Bureau, Tariq Ikram and Sindh home minister Syed Sardar Ahmed.
Mr Shaikh referred to the task forces set up earlier and stated that the objective of Thursday’s meeting was to discuss their recommendations.
He said investors present at the meeting came up with a number of suggestions, particularly asking for a reduction in excise duty and curtailing the number of taxes. They also urged that the tax administration be made efficient as well as transparent and the performance of government bodies such as ports, Wapda, KESC, etc, to be improved. Mr Shaikh said that the Cabinet would formalize some of the decisions that were agreed to in principle at the meeting.
He stated that the tariff, raw material and excise duty etc would be reviewed while the Board of Investment would be empowered so that all investment-related decisions were taken under a one-window arrangement. He pointed out that an International Investment Conference was being held in Islamabad on April 19-20, in which opportunities in the fields of investment and Privatisation would be highlighted.—APP
