LAHORE, March 13: President Gen Pervez Musharraf says Pakistan will become a trade, investment and energy corridor for the entire region. Speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Lahore Expo Centre on Monday, the president said the country was rising and its economy improving fast. Pakistan would continue to rise to new heights and would develop as a trade, investment and energy corridor, he said.

Speaking about the seven-point rapid export growth strategy given by the federal government in the trade policy for 2005-06, he said he would do his best to seek Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) with countries like the US, China and others.

He, however, urged the businessmen and exporters to add value to their products. He said apart from the textile sector businessmen should focus their attention on adding value to the dairy and agriculture products. He said Pakistan was the fifth largest producer of milk in the world. There was a lot of scope for adding value to the dairy products. “Bring about a white revolution (through value-addition in the dairy products),” he urged the private sector. Similarly, he added, there was a dire need of value-addition in the food and food processing industry.

Gen Musharraf also recalled the efforts made by his government since taking over power in October 1999 to turn the economy around. He said his government had capped defence budget despite increased threats and 10-month long military build-up (with India in 2002), reduced expenditure on establishment and plugged haemorrhage of public funds to bring down fiscal deficit to less than four per cent from over eight per cent, as well as increased exports, enhanced foreign remittances and got bilateral debt rescheduled from the Paris Club to improve the external balance payments. Foreign direct investment (FDI) also grew to $1.5bn last fiscal year from $400m in 1999, and was expected to rise to $3 billion at the end of the current financial year.

He sought to dispel the impression that the economy had started to turn around after the fateful events of September 11, 2001. “The results of our prudent economic policies had begun yielding results long before that,” he claimed. He said the external balance of payments surplus, which stood at $2 billion last year, was trimmed by increased imports this year. But he was hopeful that the imports would ultimately boost the country’s exports, which were already expected to cross the all-time high of $17 billion this fiscal from a mere $7.8 billion in 1999. He said this was made possible by the government through diversification of export markets and exportable products.

He said the Lahore Expo Centre would act as a catalyst for boosting exports. He was glad to note that the project was being implemented through public-private partnership programme.

Earlier, Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan said Pakistan’s exports this year would comfortably exceed the target of $17 billion. He said his ministry was now focussing on domestic commerce, adding that studies had been undertaken on the issue. Some major initiatives on domestic commerce would be announced in the next trade policy, he said.