Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Friday asked Islamic financial industry to develop more innovative products and educate consumers about Islamic banking. He was speaking at the inauguration of Bank Islami Pakistan at the Governor house here.
"Islamic financial industry needs to allocate more resources toward research and development of new products and consumer education for creating awareness (about Islamic banking)," he added.
Sindh governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, SBP governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar and federal and provincial ministers were also present on the occasion. The Prime Minister also underlined the need to focus on integration with international Islamic financial system for enhancing Pakistan's economic and financial linkages with other parts of the world.
He said Bank Islami was an amalgamation of several investors from UAE, UK and South Africa, who have faith in Pakistan. This will further support Islamic banking in Pakistan, he added.
Bank Islami chairman former Justice Mehboob Ahmad, Zaid Randree of DCD Group UK and Yawar Moini of Dubai Bank also spoke on the occasion. The Prime Minister has said the government is concerned over problems being faced by the people of Karachi due to frequent power breakdowns and is taking short-, medium- and long-term steps to bridge the gap between demand and supply of electricity.
The Prime Minister was talking to Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) managing-director Frank Schmidt, who called on him here Friday evening.
He asked the KESC managing-director to take all possible measures to increase their power generation capacity. The KESC should look into possibilities of installing barge-mounted power stations to provide immediate relief to people of Karachi, he said.
Frank Schmidt informed the Prime Minister that KESC has finalised its plans to enhance its capacity and renovate the existing system.
He said the KESC will add 630mw to its existing capacity by 2008. The first phase, adding more 400mw, will be completed in the first quarter of 2007, substantially reducing the gap between demand and supply.
The Prime Minister, chairing a meeting at the Governor house, said the government was giving high priority to the development of Sindh province and 233 federal government-funded projects in Sindh will usher in a new era of progress.
He said that government has been regularly increasing the PSDP allocations for Sindh, which has gone up from Rs 24 billion in 2004-05 to 29.7 billion in 2006-07. This will help create more jobs and improve the standard and quality of life of people.
The Prime Minister reviewed progress of projects of Thar coal field, law and order situation and price control measures.
Comments
Comments are closed.