PM’s economic team to hold dialogues with business community for growth

PM’s economic team to hold dialogues with business community for growth

ISLAMABAD: The economic team of the Prime Minister will hold dialogues with business community to take input for economic stability and growth.

A meeting decided this on Friday to promote dialogue with the business community to seek their views on increasing the pace of growth and achieving economic stability.

Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired the meeting of the economic team at PM’s Office.

The meeting was attended by Muhammad Hammad Azhar Minister for Economic affairs, Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiyar Minister for Planning & Development, Omar Ayub Khan Minister for Power, Muhammad Mian Somro Minister for Privatization, Advisor on Finance Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Advisor on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood, Adviser on Institutional Reforms Dr. Ishrat Hussain, SAPM Dr. Sania Nishtar, SAPM Nadeem Babar, SAPM Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan, Chairman Board of Investment Syed Zubair Gilani, Chairman FBR Syed Shabbar Zaidi, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Jehanzeb Khan and senior officials of the government.

The prime minister directed that promotion of SMEs must be focused to enable such enterprises to flourish in the country.

The meeting reviewed the current economic situation and initiatives of the government to improve the business climate, increase exports, reduce current account deficit and stabilizing the economy.

It was noted that current financial year since July 2019 has commenced on a positive note. Exports have registered an increase and the Current Account Deficit has been reduced by 31 percent.

It is expected that the fuel prices will also decrease on 1st September, 2019.

The international financial institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank have restored budgetary support.

The meeting was informed that ECNEC also approved Rs. 579 billion of projects in agriculture, water and infrastructure sectors including mass-transit projects for Karachi.