Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal Thursday claimed that Pakistan's economic growth can reach 12 per cent in the next three decades, mainly due to investment and development work being carried out under China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Speaking at Leaders in Islamabad business summit, he said the high growth rate will help Pakistan become part of 25 big economies of the world by 2030, adding the CPEC was providing lucrative opportunities to the international and local investors in numerous sectors.
The minister said the whole world is looking at this project and relevant ministers of almost all European Union (EU) countries had met with him and expressed their wish to become part of the CPEC. The CPEC is going to create connectivity in the region and connect three billion population of South Asia, Central Asia and China, he said, adding that nine industrial zones are being built under the CPEC and 85 million new jobs would be created.
The planning minister urged the international business leaders to play their role in making Pakistan an Asian Tiger by exploiting huge opportunities offered by the CPEC. Highlighting Pakistan's relationship with the United States, the minister said when Pak-US relationships were on their peak, the past governments had not the vision to understand the real strength of the US.
The actual strength of the US lies in their education system; therefore, the current government has established a knowledge corridor with the US under which 10,000 Pakistani students would be sent to the US in next 10 years to study in top 200 universities of the US, he said.
Speaking on the occasion, US Ambassador to Pakistan David Hale said Pakistan and US are enjoying longstanding bilateral relations in various sectors including business, trade, education and agriculture.
He said that Pakistani entrepreneurs are capable of developing innovative business ideas and they could compete to anyone on the global scale. The ambassador also expressed his condolence over the terrorist attack on a census team in Lahore on Wednesday in which six people including four security personnel were killed.
Chairman of Martin Dow Group Jawed Akhai said it was vital to focus on developing the leadership in the country as the world is on the cusp of change and Pakistan is rapidly attaining its status as a key economic hub. "I hope that all the participants will take complete advantage of the summit and learn from each others' experiences," he added. As the world continues to recognise Pakistan's potential in different economic sectors, Martin Dow, pharmaceutical company, continues to play a lead role in developing high quality of leadership.
This has been further endorsed with the recent inauguration of the company's manufacturing facility in Meymac, France, by President of the French Republic Francois Hollande, he added.
Some other participants of the summit stressed the need for adopting modern technologies to boost their business and facilitate their customers. They said that the data-driven economy is emerging which needs to be adopted by the decision-makers as everything is getting digitalised across the globe. The future is now, they added, embracing the digital opportunity which is the only option for the countries like Pakistan to go beyond the continent to market their products.
They said that artificial intelligence, the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behaviour, should be applied to adapt oneself with the modern day technologies and to prepare oneself for the technological innovations in the coming years. About digital data collection, they said that marketing managers can do wonders if they have some 200,000 million people across the globe in order to easily showcase their products globally within seconds.
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