March 11, 2007	Sunday	Safar 21, 1428

LAHORE, March 10: Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance and Economic Affairs Dr Salman Shah on Saturday stressed the need for more investment in human resource development saying a better demographic profile could prove a major strength of the country.

“We can transform this comparative advantage into economic strength of the country by putting in more money into human resource development,” he said while addressing the members of business community at Zonal Office of the FPCCI here.

FPCCI President Tanvir Ahmad Sheikh and Vice-President Azhar Saeed Butt were also present on the occasion.

The adviser said that the ever-increasing middle class coupled with rapid urbanisation process had given a fillip to demand of consumer items in the country, adding that the presence of a large young population promised further expansion in the middle class.

Dr Shah said that the government was planning to raise the allocations for education and health sectors as a part of socio-economic uplift efforts.

He said that competitiveness and productivity had to be increased to put the country on the track of rapid growth.

He said that Pakistan had to boost its exports to the countries like China.

“We should look at China as market, not only as a donor. This country made imports worth $700 billion last year,” Dr Salman Shah said.

He hoped that the Pak-China Economic Zone being developed near Lahore would attract huge investment from China.

Dr Shah hoped that the foreign direct investment (FDI) would touch the mark of $6 billion during the year 2006-07.

Talking about government’s efforts to construct more dams in the country, he hoped that the construction of mega water reservoirs would go a long way in bringing more prosperity to the country.

He said that the government was committed to constructing five new dams by the year 2016.

“An enhanced storage capacity can help have more predictable water resources and sustainable agriculture in the country,” the advise said.

He said that generation of more hydel power was necessary as rapid economic growth had taken the annual power consumption growth rate to double digits.

He said that there was need of doubling the allocation for Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) as Pakistan needed to spend 8 to 10 per cent of GDP on the development of its infrastructure to ensure sustainable economic development.

Responding to a question, he said that Monopoly Control Authority (MCA) was being transformed into Competition Authority with an objective to check the process of cartelisation. — APP