Economy is well on way to record better growth: President

LAHORE: President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain has said the country’s economy is reviving and is well on way to record persistently better economic growth rate with every passing year.

The President expressed these views while speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Ambassadors’ Dinner 2018. Ambassador of Turkmenistan to Pakistan and Dean of Diplomatic Corps Atajan Movlamov also spoke on the occasion. Ambassadors and representatives of over 50 countries and high government officials attended the ceremony.

Mamnoon Hussain said that despite all odds, Pakistan is moving towards progress, and that the gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2017-18 reached 5.79 percent as compared to 5.37 percent in 2016-17.

He said optimal and long-term economic growth was only possible when all the sectors of the economy supplemented each other. At present, agriculture, industry and services sectors were showing improvement.

“We are marketing Pakistan in an aggressive manner at the international level. The geo-political location of Pakistan has added a lot of value to its standing and it is all set to become a trade and energy corridor,” President Mamnoon said. “The business community is the economic force for the country and its role is significant in economic uplift of the country.”

The LCCI office bearers drew the attention of the diplomats towards the decision taken by the Financial Action Task Force for placing Pakistan on ‘grey list’ that has shocked the whole nation. They said Pakistan has paid heavy price in terms of human lives and economic regression due to playing the leading and active role in the war against terror. Our forces are still engaged in curbing all the elements which are directly or indirectly involved in terrorism.

They expected that government will soon come up with an action plan for taking necessary measures to implement the FATF’s anti-money laundering and terrorist-financing regulations. They appealed to all the friendly countries of Pakistan to support in this connection.

The LCCI’s message was: “We firmly believe that trade is key to continuous economic growth and improvement in the standards of living. Support of diplomats is required to achieve our international trade ambitions. It is needless to mention that the role of heads of foreign missions will be of key importance in this regard. We look forward towards friends of Pakistan to get to the stage where we can achieve win-win situation. For that purpose, we have to exchange trade delegations on regular basis and allow our businessmen to freely interact with each other. The idea of holding single country exhibitions on reciprocal basis can create awareness about our respective strong areas. I have to emphasise that liberalised visa regime can greatly contribute to achieve these objectives.”