President Asif Ali Zardari has said that granting Most Favored Nation trading status to India was a paradigmatic shift in policy driven by the business sectors on both sides of the border. He said that the decision would reconstruct the region’s economies and increase its stability. This he said addressing a gathering comprising of ambassadors, High Commissioners, diplomats and the members of LCCI Executive Committee, during a dinner hosted by Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry here at Aiwan-e-Sadr today. Governor Punjab Sardar Latif Khan Khosa, Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Barrister Syed Masood Kausar, Governor Gilgit Baltistan‚ Pir Syed Karam Ali Shah, federal ministers and parliamentarians were also present. He said that Pakistan has signed Business Investment Treaties with many nations to boost business activities. The President while calling upon the international community for investments in Pakistan said that the Government will provide the best possible enabling environment for the foreign investment. Pakistan, the President said, was committed to promote an investor-friendly environment and it has much more to offer than bad news only. According to prepared text of his speech, the President said that Pakistan was committed to promoting an investor-friendly environment and was offering the most liberal investment policy regime in the region. The incentives, he said, include full repatriation of capital, capital gains, dividends and profits. Recounting challenges and opportunities to the Pak economy, the President said that poor infrastructure, load shedding and inadequate gas supply were among the major challenges to the economy. He said that another major issue that concerned the international community was the lack of access to the international markets in the way of Pakistan having trade and not aid. The President while calling upon the business community to assist the Government in formulation of the policies reiterated his call for ensuring the continuity of the economic policies. One of the greatest issues in our economic development, the President emphasized, has been the absence of continuity in economic policies. The business community should take ownership of the policies and should then defend those policies even as governments change, the President said.
