Govt believes in taking all stakeholders on board to tackle critical economic issues: President

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday said that the government firmly believes in taking all stakeholders on board to tackle the critical economic issues.

He reiterated that the business community and leading entrepreneurs of the country should come forward and create consensus among all political parties to address the economic challenges being faced by the country. And also to ensure that the economic policies remain unchanged despite change in the governments.

The President said this during a presentation given by Pakistan Business Council on the proposed economic reforms here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr on Friday.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Minister for Finance Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Minister for Privatization Syed Naveed Qamar, Secretary General M. Salman Faruqui, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ms Hina Rabbani Khar, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr. Nadeem-ul-Haq, Chairman BOI M. Saleem Mandviwala, Senator Syeda Sughra Imam, Federal Secretaries of concerned departments and other senior officials.

Pakistan Business Council was represented among others by its Chairman Asad Umar, Mr. Kamran, Y. Mirza, Abdul Razak Dawood, Ali S. Habib, Hussain Dawood, Iqbal Lakhani, Zakir Mehmood, Dr. Asad Sayeed, Dr. Ijaz Nabi, Dr. Ishrat Hussain, Farooq Rehmatullah and Shams Kassim Lakha.

The President said that it was a collective responsibility of all to work together and join hands to overcome the challenges of the current economic situation and to put the economy back on track.

Discussing the economic reform agenda of the Government, the President said that the Government would continue to pursue economic reform agenda despite difficulties and challenges facing it.

The President identified five major areas for reforms which he said need to be addressed on urgent basis to promote economic welfare of all the citizens of Pakistan.

The five major areas that came under discussion included better macro economic management, energy, poverty alleviation, education and regional trade.

The President also called upon the businessmen to make consortiums of the leading entrepreneurs to enter into a public private partnership to run various state enterprises with management control.

He also reiterated his call for maximum involvement of private sector and to adopt public-private partnership models in every mega developmental projects to take maximum advantage of it.

The President thanked the members of Pakistan Business Council in seeking a consensus to address the critical economic issues.

He said that the invaluable suggestions and recommendations of the Business Council to address the economic issues will be forwarded to the Government for consideration.