ISLAMABAD, Nov 2: President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday assured the local and foreign investors of continuity of the economic and other reforms initiated by his government during the past three years.

Addressing the first-ever “Oil Show” here, Gen Musharraf said the government was fully conscious of the concerns of investors regarding the continuity of liberal policies after the transfer of power to the civilian setup.

“We have already placed an appropriate framework that would guarantee the continuity of the present policies beyond 2002,” he assured.

In this context, he said, the public at large and the political parties had been taken into confidence through seminars and meetings and apprised them of the economic strategy adopted by the government.

Pakistan Association of Petroleum Geo-Scientists (PAPG) and Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) have jointly arranged the three-day technical conference and oil show starting from Saturday.

Local as well as foreign companies are participating in the conference and oil show and almost 50 booths have been established by different companies working in oil and gas sector displaying their products.

The President said, in the relatively more delicate area of decision making like deregulation of oil prices at the retail level, public acceptance had been sought appropriately.

The President said the revival of economy was a daunting task that “we have done on sustainable basis very successfully.”

“All the economic indicators are showing positive development and this view is endorsed by the IMF and the World Bank.”

The President said: “We are committed to pursuing our agenda of developing a free market economy. We have already removed many bottlenecks restricting inflow of foreign investment in Pakistan and other obstacles are being addressed through comprehensive business related reforms measures,” he said.

He said this conference would also give the much required impetus and boost to government efforts to attract investors in Pakistan.

The President said: “I understand that through various forums the industry has had close consultations and involvement in the course of this policy formulation process. I also understand that the industry’s comments and observations were objectively considered by the government.”

“It is for you now to respond positively. So long as you can tap the enormous energy resource and build up the requisite infrastructure, there is no dearth of market availability in Pakistan. Guarding the consumers’ interest is also very serious concern for us,” he added.

Addressing all the industries, the President said, most of the expatriate companies operating in Pakistan had come from the developed countries with well-established and matured market economies. He said Pakistan had taken the free market path after 55 years of the government-regulated economy. The transition will take its own course.

“While market forces will eventually prevail, we must guard against any unhealthy practices during this transition period,” the President said.

Musharraf said the industry had every right to seek justifiable returns on the investments but let there not be a vacuum to be exploited by any profiteering middle man, sponsors and promoters.

“Let healthy and principal market forces develop with checks and balances created from within the industry. I urge the industry to take the consumer into this loop and let them not be left at the mercy of such profiteers in the free market,” he urged.

He also urged the consumers to get into the loop of this free market economy by themselves by establishing consumer societies. “I assure of government’s fullest support to them in this context.”

The President said human resource base had to be extended substantially to absorb enhanced activities in the oil and gas sector. “I suggest, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources in close coordination with the industry should evolve the market responsive plan for the necessary expansion of human resource,” he said.

The President said that the gas tariff in the country was lop-sided and the government was trying to remove the anomalies to introduce better tariff structure.

Talking about over-dependence on imported oil, the President said that it had severe economic effects. “We will keep getting reduced dependence on imported oil and Pakistan will be more self-contained on its own energy resources in the most possible economic manner.”—APP