ISLAMABAD:
Prime Minister Imran Khan launched on Friday the Roshan Apna Ghar Scheme for the overseas Pakistanis, who could now purchase or obtain financing for a house in Pakistan through the Roshan Digital Account (RDA).
Addressing the launching ceremony Imran said that the government was introducing reforms and offering incentives to attract investment from overseas Pakistanis, whom he described as the “biggest asset” of the country
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“Nine million overseas Pakistanis have as much money as the total gross domestic product (GDP) of Pakistan,” the prime minister told the ceremony. The overseas Pakistanis, he said, were “the biggest asset of the country but their potential was not fully utilised”, he added.
“Pakistan can greatly benefit from the investment potential of the expatriate community and from their technical skills, professionalism and expertise,” he continued. “We have to create an environment and give incentives so that top professionals return to Pakistan.”
He described corruption as the biggest hurdle in attracting investment of overseas Pakistanis and observed that the past governments did not focus on the welfare of these Pakistanis. However, he noted that now Pakistan has substantially improved its ranking in ease-of-doing businesses.
“The overseas Pakistanis want to build their homes in Pakistan but the land mafia was a nuisance for them because it illegally occupied their plots. Under the Roshan Apna Ghar Scheme, banks are guaranteeing the plots purchased by the overseas Pakistanis.”
The prime minister expressed the hope that the current account deficit gap would be filled by the investments made by the overseas Pakistanis. He said sustainable economic growth would be achieved with the money invested by the expatriates.
“We are reforming the system to bring in investment from the overseas Pakistanis,” he added. The prime minister also gave away awards to top three performing banks for attracting investment from the overseas Pakistanis.
The event was attended by Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen, SBP Governor Reza Baqir and high level government functionaries. The RDA is a major initiative of the State Bank, which was launched on September 10, 2020.
Also read: SBP to launch Roshan Apna Ghar scheme this week
Separately, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday called for encouraging the rice exporters so that Pakistan got its maximum share in the international market and the country's economy further stabilized.
The prime minister expressed these views while presiding over a meeting of the National Export Development Board.
Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Minister for Industries and Production Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Ali Haider Zaidi, Advisor to PM on Commerce Abdul Razzak Dawood, Special Assistant to PM Dr Shehbaz Gill, top rice exporters and senior officers concerned were in attendance.
The meeting was told that with vast prospects of improvement in the sector, the current $2 billion target of rice exports could be taken to $5 billion by increasing the per acre production of the commodity through laser levelling of land and adopting modern means of cultivation and harvesting.
The prime minister directed to put special focus on the production of organic and brown rice and encourage the people for its use so that the increasing trends of sugar disease in the country could be checked.
He also directed the authorities concerned to take all possible measures for the effective implementation of Long-Term Financing (LTF) and export refinancing scheme for enhancing the exports of rice.
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