OSLO: Minister for Interior, Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal, who is on official visit to Norway, Friday interacted with Pakistani-Norwegians at an event organized by the Embassy here.
Highlighting Pakistan’s rapid economic development, the minister said a few years ago, Pakistan was not considered the safest place in the world, but now it was ranked among the fastest emerging economies in Asia, said a press release.
"Pakistan has become one of the top five economies in the world which have shown the highest growth rate in the last five years. The economic growth of the country had stagnated at 3 percent when this government came into power.
Last year, we achieved a growth rate of 5.3 percent and we are expecting it to reach the figure of 6 percent this year,” he said adding that the idustrial growth had significantly increased due to addition of 11,000 MW electricity to the national grid.
Referring to the greatly improved law and order situation in the country, Ahsan Iqbal said, Karachi had lost its status as a business and investment hub, but now target killings, land mafias and the culture of extortion were becoming a thing of the past.
More than a hundred factories had resumed operation reviving the entire economy of Karachi, he added.
Similarly, the minister said, the situation in Balochistan had improved due to unprecedented number of development projects initiated in the province.
China Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC), he said, was a game-changer as more than $46 billion worth projects were being implemented, our of which investments worth $ 29 billion have been materialized.
He said major infrastructure projects related to the CPEC were being completed on schedule in line with the policy of economic integration of the region as envisioned in the Pakistan Vision 2025.
Highlighting important role of the diaspora in building Pakistan’s economy, the minister termed that foreign remittances a lifeline for the country.
He encouraged increased foreign investment by Pakistani-Norwegians and called upon them to become ambassadors of a rising Pakistan by prioritizing research for the attainment of "knowledge supremacy" and to present a forward-looking face of Pakistan to rest of the world.
Earlier in the day, Minister Ahsan Iqbal held substantive and fruitful discussions with his Norwegian counterpart, Sylvia Listaug and State Secretary Halvorsen in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on bilateral issues.
Highlighting the role and sacrifices made by Pakistan in the fight against terrorism, the minister sought Norway’s support at the upcoming meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) scheduled to be held in Paris.
He stressed that any move to place Pakistan in the “grey” list by the international community would be counterproductive and would undermine the extensive work that Pakistan had carried out under the National Action Plan to thwart extremism and terrorism.
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