Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has said that Pakistan is rich in natural and agricultural resources, which can not only improve its economy by developing its agricultural resources according to international standard but also earn huge foreign exchange by exporting agriculture products.
He said that due to keen interest of Punjab government and comprehensive steps, agriculture products and items had been placed in the international agriculture exhibition "Green Week" held in Germany where our agriculture products were highly appreciated.
Addressing the "Pakistan Agri Expo 2012" at Expo Centre, here on Friday, Shahbaz Sharif said that Punjab government had placed 21 different Pakistani agri items in the international agriculture exhibition "Green Week", which were highly appreciated at international level due to their best quality. He said that 70 percent population of Pakistan lived in villages and "we can strengthen national economy by providing facilities to them."
He said if necessary facilities and resources were not provided to those people at local level then population pressure would increase on big cities which would cause social problems. He said that 54 percent labour force was associated with agriculture and due to the hard work of farmers Pakistan was at 20th place in the world with regard to its agriculture production.
He said, "If we want to improve economy then we would have to streamline our agriculture sector on modern lines, construct agro based industrial complex and provide modern agricultural machinery to the farmers." He said Pakistan was rich in natural resources and was the fourth largest milk producing country of the world. Similarly, Pakistan was at third place regarding production of mango, fourth in cotton and sugarcane, eighth in rice production and 10th in Kinno production at international level. He said, "We can attain economic independence by improving our economy and in this way we will get rid of economic slavery of others."