Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has expressed the government s commitment to provide all out facilities to domestic as well as foreign investors. He was chairing a meeting of government s economic team in Islamabad on Saturday.
The Prime Minister while appreciating the performance of relevant departments and officials in improvement of Pakistan s ranking in Ease of Doing Business said this is a huge achievement for the country.
He expressed satisfaction that economic indicators are on positive trajectory with value of rupee stabilizing and stock market indicators moving upward.
The Prime Minister said continuous meetings are aimed at giving the impetus to the wheel of economy.
He said now the mission of economic team should be on promotion of construction and small business sectors in order to generate employment opportunities and to run the economy on fast track.
Imran Khan also directed to provide facilitation to overseas Pakistanis in their remittances.
Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed the confidence that Pakistan will become one of the top places for investment before the end of next year.
In a tweet on Thursday, he said the government has fulfilled another of its manifesto commitments by showing improvement in the ease of doing business.
He said Pakistan has achieved the biggest improvement in its history in the World Bank s Ease of Doing Business rankings. He said over the last decade Pakistan s ranking had slipped more than fifty places. Now, we have improved twenty eight places from 136 to 108.
Congratulating the hard work of his team, the Prime Minister said we still have a long way to go.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan Saturday tasked his economic team to focus the uplifting of the construction and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sectors as the country’s economic indicators had started improving.
Chairing a meeting of his economic team, the Prime Minister felicitated the relevant departments and officials over the elevation of Pakistan’s ranking in ease of doing business by the World Bank terming it a great achievement of the country, a PM Office statement said.
The meeting was attended by federal ministers Khusro Bakhtiar, Ali Zaidi, Omar Ayub and Hammad Azhar.
Advisors Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Abdul Razak Dawood and Dr Ishrat Hussain, Special Assistants Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Yousuf Baig Mirza, Shaukat Tareen, Chairman Federal Board of Revenue Shabbar Zaidi, Governor State Bank Baqir Raza, Chairman Board of Investment Zubair Gilani and senior officers.
The objective of frequent interaction by the Prime Minister with his economic team was to help accelerate the economic activity in the country.
Briefing the prime minister, Governor State Bank Baqir Raza said that around 46,940 had been pending with the banking courts and their early disposal required legal reforms.
Regarding promotion of SMEs, the Prime Minister was told that the Board of Governors of SMEDA comprising vibrant and expert people was being formed. The appointment of the SMEDA’s CEO would be made by December and a three-year strategy would also be formulated in this regard.
The Prime Minister told his economic team that it was among the government’s priorities to facilitate both the local as well as the foreign investors.
He said the value of the local currency had regained stability and the indicators of the stock market were showing improvement. He also directed his team to facilitate the overseas Pakistanis by bringing ease in sending the remittances.
On the Prime Minister’s directive, the Frontier Works Organization deferred the implementation of the axle load policy on M-9 Motorway for one year. The decision was taken on the request of the trader’s community.
