ISLAMABAD, July 29: Pakistan has urged the United States and European countries to stop issuing negative travel advisories as they were gravely hurting foreign investment and tourism in the country.
Official sources told Dawn here on Thursday that President Gen Pervez Musharraf had raised the issue with the Bush administration and the EU countries urging them to do away with the ongoing advisories against travelling into about Pakistan.
The president said Pakistan needed foreign investment which was not possible without the active support of the US and western governments. Though the government, sources said, had offered numerous concessions, including safe repatriation of investment and profit, foreign investors continued to avoid making sizable investment in Pakistan due to the negative travel advisories being issued by their respective governments.
"These travel advisories have softened to some extent due to the personal involvement of the president, but still more efforts are required to attract foreign investment and promote tourism," a source said.
He said the issue had been taken up afresh by President Musharraf with many European countries and the Bush administration. "But we mush accept that Pakistan's image needs to be improved to avoid negative travel advisories in our part of th world," he said.
The source said some vested interests had maligned the image of the country specially after 9/11. The source told Dawn that President Musharraf would be given a high-level briefing within next two weeks time about the state of the economy with a special reference to foreign investment and the promotion of tourism.
"The president has sought concrete proposals with a view to get the ongoing negative advisories removed," he said. Pakistan had attracted just $950 million foreign investment during 2003-04 and it was projecting $1.25 billion such investment during the current fiscal year which was considered a peanut compared to other countries of the region. And the main reason given for low foreign investment was the negative perception about the country.
Sources said the president had directed the ministry of tourism to concentrate more on South Asia and South East Asia for attracting tourists rather than continuously looking towards the western countries for this purpose.
"A comprehensive new strategy is being finalized on the directive of President Musharraf to promote and develop tourism in the country," another source said.
