Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said the government aimed to fetch investment of billions of dollars from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries into the country’s food and agriculture sector
In a tweet, he said, the GCC countries imported food items and agriculture products to the tune of $40 billion annually. Mr Sharif said the step would be taken under the supervision of Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), for which the ground has been prepared.
In the next four to five years, he said, there would be an investment of approximately $40 billion in addition to the creation of four million new jobs.
The prime minister mentioned that at the national seminar on agriculture and food security held Monday, he stressed the importance of revitalizing agriculture as a harbinger of the second Green Revolution.
“The second Green Revolution is about making agriculture the major driver of our economic growth, leading to food security that reinforces our national security,” he said.
He said the seminar was not a routine event meant for churning of rhetoric, but it represented the beginning of a long overdue national effort for the economic revival of the country owned by all stakeholders.
“The future holds the promise of departing from loans to building a resilient economy, which stands on its internal strengths,” he said. “Together, we will make it happen.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday urged the stakeholders to invest in empowering communities by building their capacity through better health and educational facilities and ensuring an enabling environment to unlock their potential.
In his message on the World Population Day being globally marked today, the moment draws the attention to the vast disparity between the requirements of increasing population and availability of resources.
Also, he said, it highlights the need for affirmative policy actions to empower our communities and the people. PM Sharif said population remains at the heart of effective national planning.
He said for developing countries in particular, managing population growth is key to socio-economic development. He said no country, howsoever resourceful, can deal with population explosion. “Thus drawing a balance between population and resources is fundamental to the fulfilment of the needs of teeming millions,” he said.
This year’s theme ‘Unleashing the power of gender equality’ is a powerful reminder of the imperative to empower our women, girls and men and end discrimination.
“Their mainstreaming in the national life will automatically help in achieving the development goals and increasing human productivity,” he said.
The prime minister said gender equality was not just a human rights issue, but also an economic requirement.
“The idea of balanced development is grounded in the empowerment of communities, who are enabled in not only fulfilling their aspirations of a meaningful life but also becoming a shareholder in the process of development of their societies,” he said.
He mentioned the significance of the multifarious factors such as climate change, geostrategic upheavals and dysfunction of markets, the countries are finding it hard to stay on course for achieving Millennium Development Goals.
Add to this mix the issue of gender inequality and discrimination and humanity gets farther from Sustainable Development Goals, he said.
The prime minister said the concept of development was not abstract but rooted in the welfare of the people.
“Hence all the more reason to invest in effective communication between the policy makers and the people at large for better outcomes,” he said. “We need to demonstrate greater political will to deal with the challenge.”
