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LAHORE: President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday called for broad based political consensus on national economic policies regardless of which government was in power.
Speaking to businessmen, industrialists and entrepreneurs here, he said after having achieved consensus on political reforms it is time to work for economic reforms as “we cannot afford politicization of economic policies.”
Presidential spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar, who was also present on the occasion, said the president has commended the business community for achieving record export performance despite various challenges on internal and external fronts.
He assured that the government will take business community on board in all major economic decisions including the upcoming federal budget and the trade policy.
Moreover, the president said economic policy is aimed at creating jobs for youth improving investment opportunities and resolving energy crisis.
“We are undertaking short and long term measures to overcome energy crisis. I advised the government to consider exempting the express feeders of industries in Lahore region from loadshedding,” said Zardari.
The president said currency swap agreements negotiated with various countries would provide huge incentives to the business community to explore and enhance business linkages with these countries.
He said the government’s policies for expatriate Pakistanis resulted in robust growth of remittances which rose from $6 billion in 2007 to nearly $12 billion now.
He invited the business community to participate in Public Private Partnership projects of infrastructure on Build Operate Own (BOO) basis by raising equity through stock exchange.
He said stock exchange trading is at 12,000 points and the credit rating has improved internationally.
Revenue collection up to last month stood at Rs 1270 billion as compared to Rs 1020 billion during corresponding period of last year reflecting 25 per cent increase.
Exports have continued to register upward trend despite the high base of last year's exports of 30 per cent rise that touched record figure of $25.5 billion.
