President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday invited the leading business houses of the country to convene a meeting of all political parties from their platform on the issue of economic reforms and the ways to put the economy on solid footings and ensuring continuity of the policies.
This he said during a presentation by Pakistan Business Council on agenda for economic reforms at Aiwan-e-Sadr. He also offered Presidency as the venue of the roundtable meeting of political parties adding that he would participate in it as co-chairman of PPP along with leaders of other political parties and not preside over it as the president.
While discussing the current economic situation, the president said that it was a collective responsibility to work together, hand in hand, in order to overcome the challenges of the current economic situation and to put the economy back on track. He said that investors, entrepreneurs and businessmen were important stakeholders and they must come forward to play their role. If the important stakeholders don't step in now to assist the government in taking remedial measures and address economic issues, the economic situation would adversely affect the business community most, the president warned. The president also said that ensuring continuity of economic policies and taking along all the political parties was necessary to ensure sustained economic growth. The president said that had the business community owned the energy policy of mid-90s and stood against their reversal when the PPP government was undemocratically removed from office, we would not have been facing the present energy crisis, he remarked.
Talking about the ownership of policies, the president said that if Pakistan's business community takes ownership of the economic policies and played a proactive role, no international agency would be able to dictate Pakistan in economic sphere. The president also suggested the businessmen to make consortiums of the leading entrepreneurs to consider buying out and managing various state run enterprises. However, he said, consortiums should only be of local entrepreneurs so that the assets and equity remained in the hands of Pakistani nationals.
The president also reiterated his call for maximum involvement of private sector and to adopt public-private partnership models in every mega development projects to take maximum advantage of it. He said that no government could tackle the prevailing dire economic challenges alone. It needs co-operation and full participation of the private sector to materialise its vision of bringing socio-economic prosperity.
Talking about the economic reform agenda of the government, the president has said the government would continue to pursue economic reform agenda despite difficulties and challenges facing it. He said that the government was aware of the difficulties of the ordinary people due to financial constraints and it was making every possible effort to provide maximum relief to the hard-pressed class. He said that a large number of families below the poverty line were being benefited through BISP adding also that the social security net provided by the BISP would be further strengthened and expanded.
The president said that financial assistance provided to the poorest of the poor may seem very little but it was a major step in the direction of alleviating poverty and empowering women. The president said that Pakistan was having no option but to enhance its trade as they could not rely on aid alone. For this, they needed to focus on infrastructure development and enhancing capacity to manage business entities effectively.
He said that during all his foreign visits and interactions with the foreign dignitaries, he had been pleading for enhanced and preferential market access to the products of the country so that Pakistan's economy could be put on solid footings.
The president said that he had been advocating innovative ideas in communication and infrastructure development, which would open up Pakistan not only towards East and Central Asia, but also towards Turkey and the Middle Eastern regions. He said that infrastructure development was an important area where they could benefit from Chinese experience and take maximum advantage. The president said that their vision to make Pakistan hub of regional economic activities was only possible through more opening towards East and through better communication network and creating special economic zones in which the manufacturers be offered special incentives of access to regional market, captive power and maximum facilitation in their business pursuits.
The president also advised the provincial government to concentrate on capacity building to undertake mega projects in the wake of recent NFC award, which empowers the provinces and give them much-needed economic liberty.
The meeting was attended by Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Federal Minister for Commerce, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shiekh, Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, Mir Hazar Khan Bijrani, Federal Minister for Industries and Production, Syed Naveed Qamar, Minister for Privatisation, Dr Nadeem-ul-Haq, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, M. Saleem Mandviwala, Chairman BOI, Federal Secretaries of concerned departments, and other senior officials.
Pakistan Business Council was represented among others by Asad Umar, Chairman, Kamran, Y. Mirza, Abdul Razak Dawood, Ali S. Habib, Muneer Kamal, Sikandar Mustafa Khan and Asif Jooma. Leading members of the business community also offered suggestions, which the president said will be forwarded to the government for consideration.-PR
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