Media Type

Article

Publication Date

3-5-2007

Description

This Conference is targeted mainly at exploring how the overseas Pakistanis can participate in the growing investment opportunities being offered by Pakistan. My paper this evening is aimed at a broad-based strategy in which Overseas Pakistanis can play an important role – investment being one of the many components of this strategy. Pakistan has been able to turn around its economy during the last six years from a situation of imminent default in the late 1990s to the current status of a dynamic, vibrant emerging economy - one of the fastest growing in Asia. Pakistan has successfully re-established its access to international capital markets and its sovereign bond is trading at a price that is not enjoyed even by investment grade countries. We have voluntarily said good-bye to the International Monetary Fund as the country has regained its economic sovereignty. Unlike the popular notion that the September 11 has benefited the economy, the fact is that dependence on foreign assistance has been reduced to the extent that it is now less than 10 percent of the entire foreign exchange earnings. The external debt ratio – one of the main indicators of the country’s dependence on the others – has sharply declined from over 50 percent to 30 percent of GDP. More importantly, despite all the various shocks, such as the recent oil price shock, the economy has remained resilient and has withstood these difficult times without any serious disruption to the market stability. In a survey of doing business in 150 countries around the world carried out by the World Bank last year, Pakistan has clearly emerged as one of the top ten reformers in the world. Its ranking in order of an enabling business environment was 60 compared to 116 for India. This shows that we have come a long way from a highly bureaucratic, controlled and regulated economy to a market and business friendly, liberal and deregulated private sector oriented economy.

Notes

Speech delivered at the Overseas Pakistanis Investment Conference held at Islamabad on March 5, 2007

Download

Share

COinS