Gilani seeks support of business community to increase trade, make PSOs profitable

PERTH: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Thursday sought cooperation of the Pakistani business community to help make the Public Sector Organizations (PSOs) vibrant and profitable and urged them to focus on increased trade with neighbouring countries to strengthen the national economy.

He was talking here to a group of Pakistani business community that had a meeting with their counterparts attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2011 at the Commonwealth Business Forum.

It was a dedicated forum for Pakistan that deliberated on "Pakistan's Potential and Opportunities in Trade and Investment."

Prime Minister Gilani who shared his vision candidly with the businessmen, said he desired a more liberal trade regime with the neighbouring countries as an efficient instrument to put the national economy back on tracks.

Gilani expressed the resolve to "set the things right" and said he believed that with clear intentions the state of things was bound to improve.

The Prime Minister also sought suggestions from the Pakistani business community to make the major public sector organizations viable and profitable and directed that a meeting needed to be convened at the earliest in this regard.

The Prime Minister said he desired good ties with neighbouring countries as he believed it would fully exploit the huge potential that Pakistan had and pointed that this would help the country reach out far beyond the traditional markets that it has.

He said the scope of Afghan Transit Trade was not limited to Afghanistan as it would give a wide reach to Pakistani products deep into the Central Asian Republics and other important regional countries in particular.

He said he has decided to participate in the Security Cooperation Organisation's forthcoming moot in Russia, despite the festive occasion of Eid as the body was desirous of bringing Pakistan into its fold and Pakistan is also keen to join the forum.

He was of the view that stricter border controls could help curb smuggling on Iran and Afghanistan borders of Pakistan and significantly increase Pakistan's trade and domestic revenue for the national exchequer.

Prime Minister Gilani regretted that some elements were trying to confuse the people about Pakistan's trade with its neighbours, despite the fact that they too believed that it was the way to help solve Pakistan's economic woes to a great deal.

The business community endorsed the views of the Prime Minister and said it was always desirous of increasing trade with Pakistan's closest neighbours. They said that Germany, France and USA and Canada are the biggest trading partners and realizing the full potential of their geographical proximities.

The Prime Minister recalled his meetings with the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at several international events including his first at Sharm-el-Sheikh and the last one at Mohali, India and said there was positive interaction between the two sides which has put the relations on the trajectory of living in peace with neighbours.

He pointed that India has supported Pakistan's position at the Security Council, the World Trade Organisation and with the European Union. He also mentioned support of the Afghanistan, Egypt and other countries in this regard.

He, however, mentioned that economic stability is interlinked with the political stability because these compliment each other. For political stability the democratic government was determined to hold free and fair elections in the country, he said, adding, for this, the government and the opposition have agreed to a great deal so far as the composition of the Election Commission is concerned.

The Prime Minister said that special attention will be focused to rectify the electoral rolls of the mistakes and legislation would be enacted to make the Election Commission independent as per the spirit of the Constitution to meet the imperatives of electoral process.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011