LAHORE: Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar says Pakistan intends to achieve its economic growth targets by promoting trade and economic relations with the European Union and other countries of the world.

Speaking to a six-member delegation of the European Conservative and Reformists Group of Parliamentarians led by vice president ECR Germany Hans-Olaf HENKEL at Governor’s House on Thursday, Mr Chaudhry said Pakistan is a peaceful country that has rendered invaluable sacrifices for peace in the region.

The governor stressed that strengthening of national economy could not be possible without the promotion of trade and economic activities and added that the PTI government was following a holistic strategy to promote trade economic activities by providing conducive atmosphere to the investors.

Mr Chaudhry said hundreds of thousands of new opportunities of employment would be created with the increase in investment.

He said that he had worked very hard for achieving the GSP+ status in his previous tenure but the previous government could not achieve sufficient benefits owing to certain reasons.

He said the government was devolving power and authority to the grassroots to ensure that local bodies’ representatives could serve the people better. He asserted that the people would be provided basic necessities of life on priority basis.

“The government fully believes in corruption-free and clean politics and we will come up to the expectations of the people on the basis of our performance,” he said.

The European delegation members described the achievement of GSP+ status for European markets as an important achievement of Pakistan and appreciated the strong role rendered by Governor Chaudhry Sarwar. The members said Mr Sarwar’s personal experience and close contacts with the European countries would help in economic development of Pakistan.

Lauding the government efforts for bringing improvements in economic sector, they said, the achievement of GSP + status was the result of these steps.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2018