KARACHI, Aug 2: Federal Minister for Finance Syed Naveed Qamar has said Pakistan is passing through a crucial time and 2008 is the most difficult year from economic point of view in the history of Pakistan.

Addressing a meeting of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) at a hotel here on Saturday, he said that due to increase in global rise in prices of petroleum products business community was facing a lot of problems but government was taking steps to provide some relief to them.

Naveed Qamar said that the present government was focusing on attracting foreign investors and persuading them to invest in Pakistan.

He said that deteriorating law and order situation during the tenure of previous government forced them to think about shifting their investment in Pakistan but the present government is ready to cooperate with them and provide security to them.

He said that devaluation of currency is another challenge for the government and he had met recently with State Bank of Pakistan Governor Shamshad Akhtar and talked about this issue. He said that the government had designed a strategy to meet these economic challenges.

He said that democratic government always takes steps to promote economy by providing subsidy on raw material and people are hopeful that this government would also pay special attention to business sector, adding, “we would not disappoint them”.

He said he had formed a comprehensive strategy to provide relief to textile and business sector, which would be announced next week.

Addressing on the occasion, KCCI President Shamim Shamsi said that investment in a country depends on a lot of factors like market size, input costs, natural resources, political stability, law and order situation and the policy framework.

He said that the country was facing many internal and external threats such as economic recession, slow pace of foreign and local investment, increasing inflation and skyrocketing prices of essential items, which may destabilise the national economy. He also informed the minister about problems faced by the business community.

Zubair Motiwala said that the increase in prices of POL products, food inflation and reduction in export had hit hard the economy of Pakistan. He informed the minister about the problems of exporters and expressed grave concern over export of cotton to India.

He said that Pakistan produces natural gas but it is being sold at high rates. He said that most of manufacturing processes depends on gas and increase in gas tariff has affected exporters.

Leader of the business community and former president of KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli said that due to prolonged load-shedding the industry was facing several problems.

He said that exporters were unable to meet their production orders, which was a big factor behind falling exports.

He requested the minister that the government should take steps for improving exports to reduce trade deficit and enhance revenue generation.—PPI