Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has called upon the industrialists and businessmen to focus on establishing agro-based small and medium industries to generate economic activity, and create more jobs in the country.
He sated this while addressing local investors and businessmen at the Governor's House here on Wednesday night, according to a handout issued here on Thursday.
Shaukat Aziz said entrepreneurs and the private sector businessmen are the engine of growth, and the government has focussed its policies to provide them infra-structural facilities for create a propitious environment.
He said the deregulation policies of the government have created a congenial atmosphere for investment in the country due to which the cost of doing business has gone down enabling the investors to earn reasonably.
Shaukat Aziz said during the last two months the large scale manufacturing sector has gone up by 16 percent, while the import of machinery has increased by 35 percent which reflects that investors are putting their money in different sectors of economy
He said the demand for consumer goods and other items has substantially increased, saying it shows that there is great potential for the manufacturing industry to meet this growing demand.
He said the government has not raised the prices of PML products, while the crude oil prices in world market have substantially gone up.
"Had the government passed on the burden of oil prices to consumers, the prices of oil in the country would have gone up by 40 percent" said the prime minister, adding the government has adopted this stance to reduce the cost of doing business and keep the prices of daily-use items stable.
Shaukat Aziz said the local investors should focus on the construction sector to meet the growing demand of housing, hotels and shopping malls, adding the construction sector accelerates the economic activity, and almost 40 industries associated with the construction sector get activated with investment in this sector.
The prime minister said a revolutionary development is taking place in the telecom sector, adding the cellular phone industry is one of the fastest growing industries in Pakistan.
He said the deregulation policy of the government has attracted a big number of foreign investors in this sector, creating more jobs for the people.
He said oil and gas sectors are under-exploited as local investors are not investing in this sector although it has a great potential for income generation.
He urged the local investors to invest in this sector which will help them earn more dividends as compared to any other sector.
Shaukat Aziz urged the textile mill-owners to focus on value-added exports to earn more and make extra profit, and assured them that the government would help them find new markets for their exports.
In this context, he stressed the need for organising overseas exhibitions of Pakistani products to find access to the international markets.
The prime minister said the Board of Investment and the Export Promotion Bureau would facilitate the private sector in arranging such exhibitions.