TORONTO, 29 June — The economic reforms introduced by the government of President Pervez Musharraf have created ideal conditions for foreign investment in Pakistan, said Usman Aminuddin, federal minister for petroleum and natural resources.
Speaking at the International Petroleum Investment Conference in Calgary, Canada, the minister said that as a result of Islamabad’s wide-ranging economic reforms, several positive indicators are already evident. These include strong rebound in agriculture, broad-based growth in large-scale manufacturing, lowest inflation in two decades, increase in tax collection by 15 percent as against an average growth of 4.8 percent during 1996-1999, significant increase in exports and workers’ remittances, and improvement in trade and current account balances.” He told the conference that Pakistan government is committed to pursuing its agenda of developing a free market economy. “We have already removed many bottlenecks restricting inflow of foreign investment in Pakistan and others are being addressed through comprehensive business-related reform resources,” he said.
The petroleum minister pointed out that the IMF has approved a standby credit and the country’s credit rating has improved to B+.
Usman also explained government’s future policies and said the new plans for the upstream petroleum sector are aimed at accelerating exploration activities through consolidation, continuation and improvement of policy terms, and operational flexibility.
Meanwhile, Privatization Minister Altaf M. Saleem speaking at the conference said government was attaching high priority to its privatization program.
