May 9, 2006	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 10, 1427

QUETTA, May 8: Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Mir Mohammad Yousuf has urged local and foreign investors to avail tremendous opportunities offered by the province in various sectors.

Speaking at the opening session of the two-day international seminar on “Economic development strategies for Balochistan,” the chief minister identified health, education, mineral, livestock, agriculture etc., as potential sectors for making investment and said that the government would extend every help in this regard.

“We are paying full attention to the health, education and developing infrastructure to pave the way for foreign and local investment in the province,” Yousuf added.

The seminar was jointly organised by Balochistan University of Information Technology & Management Sciences and Hanns Seidel Foundation, Islamabad. Renowned economic experts and scholars from Germany, China, Iran, Oman, Russia and Pakistan were participating in the seminar.

Mr Yousuf said that the government was giving top priority to mega projects and socio-economic development of the province and was also implementing comprehensive policies to explore natural resources of the province.

He said that Balochistan, bordering with Iran and Afghanistan, was enjoying great importance due to its geo-political strategic location and having long coastline all across the Arabian Sea would prove a gateway of industrial and economic activities in future. “It would also become a corridor for central Asian states to access the warm waters of the Indian Ocean,” he added.

Referring to the mega projects launched by the federal government, he said that with the completion of Gwadar port, the province would prove to be the future’s main gateway of Pakistan for boosting trade and economic ties with central Asian states and other countries of the region.

“Gwadar Port would prove a multidimensional centre and would play a vital role in trade linking between South and Central Asia and rest of the world,” Jam Yousuf said and added that it would also help in development of the entire region.

Jam Yousuf said that government always welcomed healthy and positive criticism believing that difference of opinion was part of the democracy but the elements chosen path of violence for the achievement of their goals could not be accepted.

BUITMS Vice-Chancellor Dr Mohammad Abbas Chaudhary in his welcome address highlighted the significance of mega projects in the economic development of the province and said that besides Gwadar port, Pakistan should have built more such ports along with the coastline of Balochistan.