ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said on Friday that Pakistan was the most business friendly country of the region offering a number of incentives to the investors.
"We encourage investment from outside the country, there are no trade barriers, no visa restrictions and no business requirements for local partnership". The minister said this while addressing at the concluding day of the two-day international conference on "Competition Enforcement Challenges and Consumer Welfare in Developing Countries" organized by the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) in collaboration with USAID here.
He said that private sector was the engine of growth of any country's economy and it was government's responsibility to ensure appropriate measures along with provision of best possible policies, services and resources to facilitate the private sector for promotion of economic growth and job creation.
Talking about the achievements on the economic front, Dr. Hafeez Shaikh said that the government was focusing on the rural areas development of the country and during last year an amount of Rs. 300 billion was shifted to the rural areas of the country under the 7th National Finance Commission Award (NFC) in order to enable the provinces to spend more on social sector like health, education and people welfare related projects.
He said the revenue sector of the government was doing excellent job as it collected Rs. 640 billion during first five months of the current fiscal year which was the highest collection ever in the country's history.
The Finance Minister said "in order to promote our national economic interest, all the sectors including Federal and Provincial governments, courts, CCP and regulatory authorities, media and civil society must work together".
Rahat Kaunain Hassan, Chairperson CCP on the occasion highlighted the achievements of the Commission for the promotion of competitive business environment for the welfare of the people.
Rahat said the Commission had a dedicated team and she had the confidence in its hard work and tenacity in encountering daunting challenges.
Speaking on the occasion, Richard A. Albright, Coordinator for Economic and Development Assistance Embassy of the United States, Islamabad said that fair and strong competition in business activities enhances economic strength of a country.
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