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JJ addresses Asean workshop Pakistan on threshold of defining new

culture of business practices

KARACHI: "Pakistan today is at the threshold of defining a new culture of business practices." This was declared by Javed Jabbar, Adviser to the Chief Executive on Information and Media Development.

He was speaking at the Asean-Pakistan Trade Facilitation Workshop at a local hotel on Tuesday.

Javed said that business practices regrettably had suffered in the past. He also pointed towards slowness of speed, inconsistency of government policies and in the private sector defaulted loans, malpractice etc as reasons for the setback.

He said that the present government "is committed" to try to define a new business culture Ñ a culture that should recognise the importance of investment, respect enterprise, and should welcome foreign investment. He added that "we respect principles of openness and free competition."

The adviser to CE said that the Asean was a unique grouping and very diverse and expressed hope that the workshop would stimulate more frequent travels by Pakistani entrepreneurs to the Asean region.

He said he believed that Pakistan's private sector "owes it to the importance of Asean" to become explorers of Asean "as we still do not know within Pakistan" of the potential as well as the realities of Asean.

Referring to the performance of the present government on the economic front during the past four months, Javed Jabbar said that Pakistan had sent out positive indicators during the period.

He said that Pakistan's credit rating had improved and, in this kind of situation, "we have rescheduled loans worth over one billion dollars" which was a sign of confidence that western and eastern governments place in Pakistan.

He said that "we are also responsible for rescheduling the Euro bonds and this is the first time that the entire Eurobonds" offer was rescheduled for over 600 million dollars.

Javed said that the present government, in just eight weeks, renegotiated lower tariffs with 10 IPPs and that resulted in a net saving of one billion dollars for Pakistan.

He said that this showed that in this environment the present government had focused undivided attention on the economic front.

The adviser to CE also drew attention of the participants towards the revival being witnessed in the textile sector where 200,000 spindles, that had been idle, were activated due to the cotton surplus situation.

He said that the stock market was reaching record levels.

Javed also referred the SPB report for the past six months that just been released and said that it indicated that there were some positive indicators.

He said that the present government "respects the autonomy" of SBP and the principles of transparency which is so important for ensuring the confidence of overseas investors in the country.

The adviser said that the present government "also attaches priority" to the modernisation of economy and added that in the telecommunication sector "we have gone for major restructuring" to recognise the convergence taking place between telecom and information technology.

He stated that Pakistan was currently at the threshold of defining a new culture of business practices.

Javed said that Asean-Pakistan Trade Facilitation Workshop was a timely moot on an important subject. He said that the Asian "has a great relevance for our country" as a set of nice neighbours which "are very close to our hearts" and to Pakistan very important region.

He said that there was three-fold importance of Asean to Pakistan:

Ñ It is a unique grouping of very strong dynamic, potential economic partners for Pakistan;

Ñ The grouping represents a very significant balancing factor for the geo-strategic concerns of Pakistan; and

Ñ It is a role model for Saarc, of which Pakistan is a founding member.

Javed said that Saarc, in the past 15 years, remained static while Asean had expanded.

He said that Pakistan, too, is very important for Asean because we are the seventh largest country" in the world.

About the location of Pakistan, he said that very few nations enjoy such an exclusive location having immediate access to West Asia, North Asia, Middle East, Gulf and South Asia.

Javed said: "we are the bridge between not just the West Asia and South Asia but we are the bridge that brought United States and China together."

He said: "We can take pride in Pakistan's historical international role and for 52 years Pakistan always took morally correct but very difficult steps. APP