Press Release

Islamabad April 29, 2011: President Asif Ali Zardari today reiterated that business community and leading entrepreneurs of the country has to come forward to create consensus among all the political parties to address the economic challenges facing the country and also ensuring that the economic policies remain unchanged with change in the governments. He said that the government firmly believes in taking all stakeholders on board to tackle the critical economic issues.

 

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

 

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

 

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