Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Thursday sought cooperation of Pakistani business community to help make public sector organisations profitable and urged them to focus on increased trade with neighbouring countries to strengthen the national economy.
Talking to a group of Pakistani businessmen who had a meeting with their counterparts attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2011 at the Commonwealth Business Forum, Gilani said he wanted a more liberal trade regime with the neighbouring countries as an efficient instrument to put the national economy back on track.
Gilani expressed the resolve to “set things right”, saying he believed that the state of things was bound to improve with clear intentions.
The prime minister also sought suggestions from the Pakistani business community to make public sector organisations viable and profitable and directed that a meeting needed to be convened at the earliest in this regard.
He said he desired good ties with neighbouring countries as he believed it would fully exploit the huge potential that Pakistan had and pointed that it would help the country reach far beyond the traditional markets that it had.
He said the scope of the Afghan Transit Trade was not limited to Afghanistan as it would give a wide reach to Pakistani products deep into the Central Asian republics and other important regional countries in particular. Gilani said he had decided to participate in the Security Cooperation Organisation’s forthcoming moot in Russia, despite the festive occasion of Eid as the body was desirous of bringing Pakistan into its fold and Pakistan was also keen in joining the forum.