LAHORE: Former President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday said Pakistan needs a Charter of Economy in the same way as the democratic forces signed Charter of Democracy for the stability of democracy in the country.
“I will talk to all political parties to bring them on board for it,” Zardari said.
Asif Ali Zardari was addressing the seminar on Charter of Economy organised by Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
He stressed the need of promoting, protecting and incentivizing the local investors as the foreign investors earned five times of their investment.
Zardari said Charter of Economy should be for fifty years not for fifteen years as the China did. He assured businesses community his full support.
Former president said Pakistan needs 200 billion US dollar foreign exchange reserves as 20 billion dollars reserve were nothing. “Once foreign investors invest a dollar in Pakistan, he earns five dollars against the one dollar”.
Asif Ali Zardari said no one is ready to invest in Pakistan on world highest mark-up rates. Talking about the defence budget, he said that no one will question the defence expenditures if Pakistan exports will be 200 billion dollar.
He said government facilitate businesses. He also said government don’t run businesses. “If the governments facilitate businesses and trade and they will earn profit and pay taxes,” Zardari said.
He also said PPP believes in increasing the taxes by increasing the income.
Zardari talking about his past government performance said that CPEC was brought in Pakistan by him.
He said government don’t run transport business. “We in Karachi running the buses by the private sector”, he added.
Talking about expensive energy Zardari said that expensive energy is the biggest hurdle in the way of progress. He said during his past government he signed historic Pakistan Iran gas pipelines project. He further said we are importing expensive LNG from Qatar.
PPP government is generating power from the canals through run of the water projects and same could be done in Punjab. “I don’t believe generating hydel powers from dams which are meant for agricultural purposes”, he added.
Zardari said that the PPP was being criticized on increasing the support prices of the agriculture produce in Pakistan, but the logic behind increasing the prices is to increase the production and make the country self-sufficient. Otherwise he said we need a lot of foreign exchange for importing agricultural products.
Zardari said that our existence is with Pakistan. There is no value of Pakistani passport if we did not have money. There is no value of any passport of the world even US if they don’t have money.
President FPCCI Irfan Iqbal Sheikh said that charter of economy is the need of the hour. Benazir Bhutto signed charter of democracy for sustainability of democracy in the country. In the same way we have to sign charter of economy to bring economic prosperity in the country.
Economy should be out first priority. Currently Pakistan is facing problems like inflation and unemployment. Charter of Economy is very important to overcome the problems. We believe that by adopting the Charter of Economy, Pakistan will progress. FPCCI gave a presentation on economy to Asif Ali Zardari.
The former president was given a presentation on the comparison of Pakistan in the world in various sectors.
We have to increase exports and create a policy for overseas Pakistanis. We should work on energy security and agriculture.
Former President FPCCI and vice president SAARC Chamber of Commerce Mian Anjum Nisar requested former President Asif Ali Zardari to play its role for getting visas to the exporters.
It was hoped that when Hydel comes, the problems will be solved, but the rates are too high. Import substitution is very important. Inflation needs to be brought down.
Food security issues are increasing, there is a need to improve agricultural production. Taxes on local industry should be reduced, the economy will be strong if the industry runs.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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