Addressing Pakistan-US investment conference‚ Finance Minister says Pakistan’s economy is facing a number of challenges.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar says the PML-N Government has adopted an economic policy that assigns leading role to private sector in economic development.
Speaking at the two day Pakistan-US investment conference in Dubai‚ he said we firmly believe that it is not for the government to manage businesses rather it should focus on regulatory responsibilities through independent bodies.
He said given the Government’s primary goal to accelerate the process of economic growth it is very keen to promote investment. We are ready to facilitate investors both through a stable policy framework as well as enabling them individually to fulfill all regulatory requirements for setting up their businesses.
Ishaq Dar said Pakistan’s economy is facing a number of challenges and unless these are overcome the road to progress will not be smooth.
He said much of the initial efforts of the government would be directed at addressing the macro-economic imbalances in the economy. He said the regulatory regimes remain obstructive‚ cost of doing business is high and taxation policies and administration are not business friendly.
The Finance Minister said our economic vision assigns larger share of economic development to private sector‚ restricts government to regulatory sector‚ limits government expenditures within the larger bounds of revenues collected‚ making all citizens share the burden of revenue mobilization; and ending the culture of exemptions and concessions in taxes. It is also aimed at providing public sector services on the principle of cost recovery; giving subsidies only to targeted populations and finally creating a very strong social protection system for the poorest segments of population.
He said the government has taken a very bold initiative to settle the circular debt and this should help raise the confidence of investors and process of investment in this critical sector should resume.
Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif said the recent democratic transition in Pakistan is momentous as it lends predictability and continuity to the economic and trade liberalization policies of our government for the future.
He said the Government has firm resolve to accord top priority to promote trade‚ commerce and investment. United States has emerged as our largest trading partner besides a source of significant investments in Pakistan. He said we value our relationship with United States which is all encompassing. He highlighted U.S cooperation in the fields of energy‚ agriculture and education and hope that in the days and months to come‚ our relationship will grow stronger and deeper.
