A prominent Pakistani-American business leader has said Islamabad’s powerful friends should come together with an international initiative to bring investment into Pakistan in a big way in order to revive the country’s economy as well as help regional stability.
Nasimuddin Mirza, chairman of Nazu Group America, said that the United States, China, Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf nations all have a major stake in South Asian peace and stability post-2014.
Therefore, he proposed, all these economic powers should lead an effort to form some kind of international consortium or platform that attracts public and private investment in Pakistan’s key energy, industrial, tourism, financial services and agro-based industrial sectors.
Pakistan will remain the key to stability in the region, when the US-led forces end combat in Afghanistan – Washington should make it a priority between now and the end of 2014 that Pakistan revives its economy as that will also benefit Afghan peace and stability, the entrepreneur, who has business concerns in five countries, argued in an interview.
He particularly noted that investment in the field of energy, which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government has aptly declared as a top priority, should start flowing at the earliest as power generation projects take some time for their completion.
Mirza, whose company in tandem with Invision Media, is planning to hold a major Pakistan Expo in Washington later this year, welcomed the recent US-Pakistan initiative in Dubai to stimulate small and medium business in Pakistan.
But, he underscored that Pakistan and the United States should work to realise trade and economic development projects in both mainstream economic centres and the militancy and conflict-hit tribal areas so that creation of jobs for local people helps forge stability.
At the same time, Mirza asked Islamabad to devote its full attention to facilitating a level-playing field for international investors and improving law enforcement and across-the-board governance.
