Privatisation most successful, says PC

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s privatisation programme is the most successful in South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East and has fetched over $9 billion in proceeds through the privatisation of 167 state-owned entities.

This was informed by Agha Waqar Javed, a senior adviser to the Privatisation Commission, during a briefing to the faculty and the participating senior officers of the National Management Course here on Tuesday.

Giving a sector-wise break-up, he said that all state-owned enterprises in the chemical, textile, nitrogen fertiliser, cement, rice, bread and light engineering, 98 per cent of the automobile industry, 96 per cent of ghee mills and all units of phosphate fertiliser have been privatised. The banking industry has been privatised substantially due to which 80 per cent of the banking sector was under private ownership, he said.

He added that the government was endeavouring to enhance the value of government shareholding, the maximisation of profits, the modernisation and upgrading of state-owned enterprises, the exploration and creation of new assets amongst other positive decisions.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2010.