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NEW YORK, Jan 21: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has wooed the US investors to inject their money into value-addition in agriculture, textiles, engineering and IT sectors for healthier returns.
The prime minister urged the US entrepreneurs on Friday to invest in these sectors, as the government believed that value-addition was the key to boosting country’s exports and helped it earn precious foreign exchange.
Mr Aziz was speaking at an investors’ conference organized by J.P. Morgan and was attended by a large number of investors interested in injecting money into different sectors in Pakistan. The prime minister also responded to various questions after a presentation on “Pakistan’s emerging economy” held at the Roosevelt Hotel.
He said the government was pursuing the broadest reform agenda ever done anywhere in the world and added that history would bear witness to this fact. He acknowledged that the country had to face numerous problems while implementing its revolutionary reforms but added that these had now started paying dividend.
He pointed out that the government was taking all decisions in national interest only and the results speak about it clearly. Mr Aziz pointed at the high growth rate that rose to 8.4 per cent and said it was only made possible because of the broad range of reforms dealing with the social sector, judiciary, police and political sectors in the past six years.
“We cannot sit still and have to keep moving to leverage our full potential,” he said.
Mr Aziz said Pakistan was at the crossroads of Central Asia, the Middle East and the Gulf and offered numerous growth opportunities. He referred to the state-owned telecommunication sector that once was a monopoly and a special course of action was charted to achieve the goals. He said PTCL was privatized, deregulated and the results were evident with the tele-density shooting up. He said from mere one million subscribers, the mobile phone users had gone up to 20 million.
US IT FIRMS: Meanwhile, many US IT companies have expressed their interest in investing in Pakistan.
The desire to this effect was expressed at a meeting of chief executive officers of US IT outsourcing companies with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz here on Friday. Investment and Privatization Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh and Export Promotion Bureau Chairman Tariq Ikram also attended the meeting.
The prime minister said Pakistan was committed to encouraging the business of information technology in the country. “We are conscious that the cost of doing business has to be reduced if we want to be competitive.”
Mr Aziz pointed out that the government would fully encourage the foreign companies to come and invest in Pakistan. The prime minister says that the telecommunication sector is much better today than in the past and the tariff on equipment required for software development has been reduced and that the IT industry is now free in Pakistan.
“We want to open ourselves for outsourcing and development of software.” He described Pakistan as a robust and growing economy. He informed the CEOs that Pakistan with a population of 152 million was a big market and asked them to look at Pakistan.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Hafeez said that the privatization process in the country was transparent and added that foreign investors would be provided a level-playing field and all necessary facilities.
The EPB chairman spoke about the growing improvements in country’s economy.—APP
