Come and invest in Pakistan, Dar says

Says govt’s policies have made country stronger than before

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government believes in good governance, transparency and zero tolerance towards corruption, said Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar during a contract signing ceremony.

The contract signed between Universal Service Fund (USF) with cellular companies Telenor and Ufone aims to provide basic telephony and data services to the people of un-served areas of Shangla, Zhob and Sibi.

“Projects worth Rs10 billion would serve 1.7 million people of 980 villages in three areas of telecom and cellular sectors,” said Dar, adding that these projects reflected the government’s resolve in financial and technological inclusion of the rural population.

Inviting foreign investors, Dar said that Pakistan’s services were now highly competitive in the region along with cheaper labour compared to countries like China, where labour cost was five times higher. “Come and invest in Pakistan as it is going to be the second best destination for investment in the world surveyed by the Japan External Trading Organisation (JETRO).

“Two years ago, Pakistan’s economy was heading toward a collapse, but due to the prudent policies of the government, it is now gaining strength, which is evident from the fact that the world’s 22 renowned economic institutions have recognised our rapidly stabilising economy,” said Dar.

“Our foreign reserves have reached $18.5 billion, which would increase to over $21 billion by the end of this year. We have also taken the revenue collection from Rs1.9 trillion to over Rs2.6 tillion per year now,” he added.

He further added that the government was all set to conduct population census across the country in February-March 2016.

Also present at the occasion, Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rahman said the USF was not effectively utilised by the previous governments. “We are using the Fund to bring the un-served areas of the country within the telecom and information technology net.”

She informed that the technology park in Islamabad would be established within two years with the help of Korean teams, while in Karachi and Lahore, these parks would be established within a span of 3 to 4 years.

“Despite challenges, the present government has managed to conduct a transparent auction of 3G and 4G spectrum,” she remarked, adding that the government would soon launch a second round of the auction soon.

“We will not stop here, but will move further and by 2020, the people of Pakistan would be able to avail the 5G technology too.” 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th,  2015.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.