KARACHI, April 17: President Pervez Musharraf on Monday invited investors to take advantage of investment-friendly policies and abundant skilled labour in Pakistan.

He was speaking at a reception hosted by American Business Council (ABC) here. Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan, Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal, Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil, SBP former governor Dr Ishrat Husain, Director General Pakistan Rangers Major General Javed Zia, US Ambassador to Pakistan Ryan C. Crocker and a large number of ABC members were also present on the occasion.

“There is no dearth of skilled, qualified and cheap labour in the country”, the prescient said and added that privatisation, deregulations and liberalisation economic policies pursued by the government had given a big boost to our economic growth.

The president pointed out that the country had achieved a record 8.4 per cent economic growth last year and every effort would be made to sustain this growth in future.

Musharraf said that the foreign direct investment had crossed $3 billion this year.

He said that the boom in economic activities would help in generating job opportunities which would reduce unemployment and poverty.

“We intend to have access to the US markets to boost our exports”, the president said.

“By creating an investment-friendly environment we are encouraging investors for maximum investment in Pakistan”.

The president observed that surge in imports was a healthy sign as we were importing value-added goods including machinery to modernize textile sector and this would ultimately pay dividends.

The president appreciating the ABC’s $1.3 billion investment in Pakistan said that economic activities generated through this investment would greatly benefit in reducing unemployment, poverty as well as in fighting extremism and terrorism.

Referring to the performance of stock market, the president said it was doing wonderful and the KSE index had already crossed 12,000 points.

The President said that policies of privatisation are successfully moving ahead and so far government has earned Rs150 billion. He referred to successful transfer of PTCL as an example and said a number of major concerns were in the pipeline for privatization.

He said that Pakistan’s per capita income had increased from $435 to $800 per.

He referred to the strategic importance of Pakistan and said that interaction between regional countries would not be possible without involvement of Pakistan.

He said that various countries had pledged $12 billion for development of Afghanistan and all these activities would take place through Pakistan.

The president said that government was fully alive to maintain law and order and every effort in this direction was made to sustain peace and tranquillity.

Earlier, ABC president Zubyr Soomro in his welcome address said the council was celebrating 22nd anniversary of its founding on Monday.

He said that policies of the government had restored the confidence of investors. He also enumerated problems including Intellectual Property Rights.—APP