An economically vibrant Pakistan will be pivot for regional development, so the US and it's allies must back the country with $100 billion to ease Islamabad's debt worries and bolster infrastructure, a prominent Pakistani-American business leader said.
For it's part, Pakistan must assign a high priority to ensuring law and order and strive for transparency and good governance to infuse a new momentum into economic growth, said Mosadaq Chughtai, who owns businesses both in the United States and Pakistan.He said, in an interview, that at this critical moment, Pakistan needs to take bold new measures as part of the larger effort to stimulate industrial growth and make Pakistani products more competitive in international markets.
"More than anything else, it is a sense of security that matters to investors -- I understand some of the problems related to the Afghan war - but we cannot wait as other countries are moving forward apace - and we must tighten governance to provoke international interest in so many potential areas, which are awaiting to be explored in Pakistan," he emphasised.
Chughtai was referring to areas holding out large scale investment promise like energy, water management, infrastructure and industries as well as small and medium enterprises that strengthen grassroots development and step up bottom-up growth in economies. Secondly, he noted, Pakistan should roll out a clear plan in its international engagement and go for economically driven approach to foreign relations with major countries like the United States.
"Pakistan is likely to remain a very important strategically located country for regional development as well as for major world powers in the foreseeable future - Pakistan should say to the United States if we are a critical ally to peace and security in the region, here is what our country needs.
"We have suffered economically and gone through unrest due to war being fought at our doorstep, we need our allies to arrange at least $100 billion for our country, $60 billion of which will be used to retire debt we owe and the rest of the $40 billion would be diverted to boosting energy production and expanding infrastructure facilities like transport, road and rail networks."
The entrepreneur, who is one of the directors of the Pakistani-American Leadership Center, an advocacy group working on the Capitol Hill, felt the Pakistani government should assure the world that it would maintain transparency in the use of such funds and involve them in the process.
On the need for bold new measures, Chughtai proposed that Pakistan waive off duties on import of all machinery, which is new and not older than two years, as inflow of modern technology would bolster production, enhance skills of workforce and quickly raise the quality of products and this way add tremendously to the volume of exports.
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