ISLAMABAD: Planning Minister Prof Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday stressed the need for making collective efforts to put the country on a consistent path of progress and development saying it was high time to take all Pakistanis along in achieving national goals.

The time has come to bring all Pakistanis forward and give them an opportunity to play a role in the development of the country, he said while addressing a two-day conference titled ‘Leaders in Islamabad Business Summit-2023’.

He said that all possible support to business companies earning dollars and contributing towards building the country’s foreign exchange reserves must be extended.

The minister said this year, the country faced the worst impact of global climate change, and now the incumbent government was working towards overcoming the issues of water and food security by switching over to a smart agriculture system.

He said the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a key component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), was a game-changer project for not just Pakistan but the entire region of South Asia.

He said around $29 billion had been invested in a CPEC-related project in a period of three years.

Mr Iqbal regretted that economic policies and projects faced considerable dent during the tenure of the PTI government, which caused serious damage to the national economy and development.

He said it was the PTI regime that scandalised CPEC-related projects and stopped the economic boom and foreign investment pouring into the country during the last tenure of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government.

He recalled that there was an economic boom during the PML-N’s last tenure, adding in 2017, the ambassadors of developed countries including America, Britain, Japan, Germany and France were showing keen interest in investing in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs), under CPEC.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2023