President Asif Ali Zardari held two separate meetings with money exchange and crop insurance companies at the Bilawal House on Saturday. Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad and senior federal and provincial government officials were also among the participants.
Zardari told representatives of leading money exchange companies that the government had increased incentives to expatriate Pakistanis to remit foreign exchange to Pakistan. He said the government recognised this sector of the economy and wanted to strengthen it further through the ‘recognize and patronize’ policy.
Zardari said foreign remittances during 2007 were around $6 billion, which with the help of the incentives had increased to $11 billion. The president said remittances had the potential to increase further and cross the $15 billion mark if Pakistanis offered adequate incentives. The president called upon money exchange entrepreneurs to improve their services and play a more pro-active role.
The meeting on crop insurance was attended by the State Life chairman, ZTBL representatives, State Bank, Finance Ministry and other senior officials. The president said crop damage due to floods might be a recurring feature due to climate change and introducing a crop insurance scheme in Pakistan was necessary. He said the APTMA delegation which called on him last night had framed the same proposals for crop insurance.
Zardari said State Life and State Bank should work together with other stake holders and submit proposals to the government for crop insurance and reinsurance in the commodity market, Babar said. The president said the modern mapping technology was available which could be employed to the greater advantage in crop insurance by offsetting the possibility of wrong claims.
Zardari also invited leading stock exchange members and investors to build infrastructure projects on build, operate, own and maintain (BOOM) basis by raising necessary equity through the country’s stock exchanges. Babar said the president believed that a number of factors favoured massive investment in infrastructure projects, adding that a decline in inflation and crude prices provided a conducive environment for investment in infrastructure projects.
He said the government could not finance huge projects because of an equity crunch and this factor had also offered an opportunity to investors to raise equity through stock exchanges for building infrastructure projects in a win-win scenario. Zardari said investors would have a guaranteed profit over a very longer period of time through this scheme and the country would also benefit by putting in place a new infrastructure of roads and bridges.
