Daily Times

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar on Thursday stressed the need for enhanced collaboration between the public and private sectors to fast track the process of economic development of the country.

Addressing the First Pakistan Semiconductor Summit, he said that the Special Investment Facilitation Council had been set up to attract investment in Pakistan and ensure ‘ease of doing business’. He said it was main thrust of the government policy to encourage innovation and investment in the country.

He said that Pakistan, as the fifth largest democracy in the world, was endowed with great natural resources and its biggest resource was its human resource. “We are blessed with a huge population of youth which constitutes 68 per cent of its population”. That is a huge potential which we can offer to the world, he added.

He said Pakistan was strategically located at the crossroads of the world which was a source of pride for the nation. He said that the Government of Pakistan as a policy encouraged innovation and investment in the country which this summit was offering precisely – a collaboration between public and private sector. He said that the federal cabinet meeting on Wednesday had approved a public private partnership policy framework to eventually facilitate investment in the country.

He said that the job of the government was not only to regulate but also facilitate investment. He said unfortunately sometimes governments forgot their primary responsibility as a facilitator which hampered the investment.

He said that the government could fulfil this responsibility through collaboration between public and private sector and by ensuring ‘ease of doing business’.

He said that Pakistan has been producing 50,000 engineering graduates every year and it has the best engineering universities in the world.

“Our engineering graduates are well placed globally but unfortunately we are not able to reap the benefits of the semiconductor industry. It is $ 550 billion industry at this moment with the projection of $ 1 Trillion by 2030.”

Tarar said that Pakistan had great potential to deploy its human resource in this industry.

The minister said that he was proud to inform that Shehbaz Sharif during his stints as chief minister of the Punjab had attached great importance to vocational training and skill development. From day one, the priority of the PML-N was skill development of the youth.