March 06, 2007	Tuesday	Safar 16, 1428

ISLAMABAD, March 5: President General Pervez Musharraf has urged overseas Pakistanis to invest more in the motherland to help reduce poverty and unemployment to defeat extremism on long-term basis.

“It has been realised that the menace of extremism cannot be eliminated by force because we have to change the mindset of a handful of people who turn extremists due to their poor economic conditions,” the president said while inaugurating a two-day International Overseas Pakistanis Conference (IOPC) here on Monday.

“We want to improve the living standards of the people by providing them basic needs like water, gas, electricity, better health facilities and education to stem extremism on a permanent basis,” he said.

He said extremism could not be overcome in few months because changing the mindset by improving the life-style of the extremists required many years.

About 250 overseas Pakistanis from different countries, who are participating in the investment conference, likely to invest over $6 billion in different sectors like small medium enterprise, power, agriculture, information technology and education.

Some 400 intending participants had confirmed their participation in the conference but in the last days half of them regretted to attend it due to security concerns.

Appreciating the confidence shown by overseas Pakistanis on the country’s economic policies, President Musharraf assured the participants that all possible facilities would be provided to them to build industries, power plants and housing projects etc.

He said cheap labour, better infrastructure and friendly investment policies of the government provided better opportunities to the overseas Pakistanis to start profitable business in their motherland. “You can get the cheapest labour in Pakistan which is $.37 per hour as even in India it is $.58 per hour, in China it is $.78 an hour and in Germany it is over $31 per hour,” he added.

The president mentioned the plan to set up nine modern universities besides the National Vocational and Technical Education Commission to impart necessary skills to meet modern industrial needs.

He said due to IT revolution in the country, the number of mobile telephone connections had gone up over 50 million against 60,000 recorded three years ago.

The president said due to economic boost and setting up of new industries and factories the country was facing gas and electricity shortage these days.

He referred to the increase in demand for cement in the country, owing to the growing construction activity and said with more dams coming up, the demand will go further up. "We are going to build more dams, including the Kalabagh dam," the President said.

The president acknowledging the role of overseas Pakistanis and urged them to increase remittances and investment into the country. "The country needs to do for you, but you also need to do for the country," he said.

The president said the poverty was down by 10 per cent, while unemployment was down by 2 per cent and said there was a need for increased FDI, remittances, exports and added that the balance of payments will be manageable in the future.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis, Ghulam Sarwar Khan said 225 overseas Pakistanis and 150 local investors were attending the conference.

The minister proposed that performance award should be given every year to top three senders of foreign remittances.