ISLAMABAD, Feb 3: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that as a result of economic reforms, investment-friendly policies and availability of human capital, the cost of doing business in Pakistan has been reduced and more investors are attracted.
The prime minister was talking to W. Lance Anderson, President and CEO of Nova Star Financial, and Tom Slone, Chairman and CEO of Touchstone Communications, who called on him along with a delegation at the Prime Minister’s House here on Friday.
Mr Aziz said that Pakistan, by focusing on development of human capital, better infrastructure and an enabling environment for investors, was gearing up to be a major destination for outsourcing of IT enabled services.
He said that privatization and opening up of the telecommunication sector to the private sector had stimulated phenomenal growth and the number of cellular phone users had risen from 2.5 million to 20 million in a period of three years.
The prime minister said: “Our policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization in the telecom sector have already attracted an investment of over $2 billion, creating over 10,000 jobs and we are expecting an investment of about $4-5 billion in the next five years.
He said that with the establishment of SEMEWE 4, Pakistan now had better international connectivity and redundancy would provide enhanced potential for outsourcing of information technology enabled services which had further improved the prospects of local and foreign investment in the IT and telecom sector.
He said that connectivity, access, content and application were all vital to the future of the information society and the government intended to keep pursuing an aggressive policy to put together these components for provision of a composite information infrastructure.
The prime minister indicated that the government would set up a national body to provide vision and policy and overview the development of IT and telecom sector in Pakistan. The prime minister will head the body.
Mr Aziz appreciated the performance of Touchstone Communications and said such companies are government’s “strategic partners” in the growth of IT and telecom sector and the government would take all steps to facilitate their business in Pakistan.
Mr Tom Slone and his delegation appreciated investment policies of the Pakistan government. He noted that the workforce in Pakistan was intelligent and productive reliable.
The meeting was also attended among others by Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Minister for Privatization and Investment, Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, Minister for IT and Telecommunication, Rehan Dawer, Executive Vice-President, Guidance Finance, and senior officials.
ACCOUNTING SYSTEM: In another meeting with Graham Ward, President, International Federation of Accountants, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the public sector accounting system in Pakistan should be modernized in line with international standards.
“Accounting and auditing system should have the capability to fix responsibility and ensure transparency,” the prime minister added.
Mr Aziz stressed the need for the adoption of internationally accepted best practises in government accounting. “There is a need for better accounting system in the private sector. The government is pursuing the process of reforms in corporate governance through the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP),” he noted.
As a part of its financial sector reforms, the government had started a project to modernize reporting and accounting system, he said. A number of steps had been taken to improve the system, however, there was still a lot more to be done to bring the Pakistani system on a par with the international standards.
There was a great demand of accounting professionals in Pakistan, the prime minister said.
