Pakistan is one of the favoured destinations for the foreign direct investment, former governor of State Bank of Pakistan Dr Ishrat Hussain told a conference on "Pakistan: strategic challenges and prospects".
Speaking about Pakistan''s remarkable economic turnaround, the country''s former top financial manager said FDI flows have surged by 95 per cent during the last eight months and are expected to touch five billion dollars or 3.5 per cent of the gross domestic produce (GDP).
Dr Ishrat Hussain, who is now the head of the National Commission for the government reforms, spoke on the topic of "Tackling Extremism and Pakistan''s road to prosperity" at a day-long conference arranged jointly by Royal United Defence Services Institute (RUSI), the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) and the Pakistan High Commission.
He said Pakistan''s international bond issues and equity floatation''s through GDRs have been consistently oversubscribed and are priced at fine margins.
Dr Hussain observed that in spite of perceived security risk and travel advisories, the global investors, fund managers and international financial institutions from all over the world look upon Pakistan favourably and show tremendous amount of confidence in the economy.
He listed this interest due to Pakistan''s growing population which constitute a large and solid market for purchase of goods and services of all kinds, economic performance in terms of macro-economic stability, growth, poverty reduction and employment generation has been stellar, successful implementation of the first generation of structural reforms have made the economy more efficient and resilient and Pakistan''s key geostrategic location providing links to the Central Asian States.
Dr Hussain noted that major direction of economic policies being pursued in Pakistan presently enjoys wide political consensus and support among all the leading political parties of the country.
He said deregulation, liberalisation, privatisation and private sector-led development have been consistently followed for the last 16 years and these will remain the pillars of future economy policy in Pakistan irrespective of which political party assumes power.
Trade policy in Pakistan, he added, has been categorised by the World Bank as one of the least restrictive in South Asia and this policy has gradually provided incentives to exporters to increase their market share in the global markets.
Speaking on the topic of "Pakistan and the Regional Security Environment" moderated by Dr Jonathon Eyal, Director, International Security Studies, former Foreign Secretary and Chairman, Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad, Inamul Haque, noted West''s dual policy on issues concerning the Muslim world.
Taking a further snipe at the West, he said it has violated its own principles by refusing to accept democratically elected government of Hamas in Palestine and by stopping aid it is punishing the people of Palestine for exercising their right to elect a government of their own choice.
Pakistan, he said, was moderate country, which is endeavouring to establish a fair and enlightened society. But he categorically ruled out any chances of a Taliban type government being elected in Pakistan, saying that the politico-religious parties have never gained more than 10 per cent of the votes in any general elections.
The British State Minister for Local Government and Community Cohesion Phil Woolas speaking on the topics said his government was working on four principles for social cohesion.
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