Pakistan and Kuwait discussed possible investments in China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) related projects in the country by Kuwait at the Third Round of Bilateral Political Consultations held during the four-day visit of Kuwait’s Assistant Foreign Minister of Asian Affairs Ambassador Ali Suleiman Al-Saeed, concluded on Friday. The visit took place in the backdrop of the meeting of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi with his Kuwaiti counterpart on the sidelines of the 47th session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers in Niamey, Niger, in November 2020. The assistant foreign minister held the Third Round of Bilateral Political Consultations co-chaired by Ambassador Khalid H Memon, Special Secretary (Middle East) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The political consultations centered on reviewing the entire spectrum of bilateral relations, collaboration on issues of mutual interest at regional and international forums, and possibilities for enhanced collaboration in other fields including food security, agriculture, poultry, livestock, tourism and oil exploration. In addition to his call on Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the Kuwaiti assistant foreign minister also met the interior minister, special assistant to the prime minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, Board of Investment (BoI) chairman, and economic affairs ministry secretary. Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood hosted a working luncheon for the Kuwaiti delegation. Pakistan and Kuwait have a long-standing fraternal relationship, marked by warmth between the leadership and abiding ties between the two peoples, rooted in shared faith, culture and traditions. President Dr Arif Alvi visited Kuwait in October 2020 to offer condolences on the sad demise of Late Emir of Kuwait. Earlier, the foreign minister had visited Kuwait in May 2019. Pakistan’s brotherly cooperation with Kuwait was further solidified as the two countries cooperated intensively in health sector and food security in the wake of the global pandemic. Kuwait is an important country of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The leadership of Kuwait played a pivotal role in facilitating the resolution of outstanding differences among the brotherly countries of the GCC through diplomatic means – a role appreciated by Pakistan as well as the wider international community. Documented economy: Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry has called upon the government to take new policy measures aimed at promoting the documented economy that would help in improving the tax revenue collection and achieving sustainable growth. He said that the IMF has projected Pakistan’s GDP growth rate at 1.5 percent for the current fiscal year 2020-21, but this forecast was based on the formal economy, which was almost half of the total economy. He said that according to various surveys and reports, the informal economy in Pakistan accounted for 35-50 percent of the total economy, therefore, the real GDP growth of the country could be enhanced significantly by bringing informal sectors in the formal economy. He said that IMF’s World Economic Outlook 2021 has projected the global economy to grow at 5.5 percent, emerging economies 8.3 percent, India 11.5 percent, China 8.1 percent, Malaysia 7 percent, Turkey 6 percent, France 5.5 percent, USA 5.1 percent, Mexico 4.3 percent. However, Pakistan’s growth projection was quite low than its actual potential and its main reason was that undocumented economy was not being considered. Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that if the government wanted to bring more people into the tax filing system, it should take confidence building measures for taxpayers. He said that lack of education about the tax system was holding back many potential taxpayers from coming into the tax system and urged that FBR should organize awareness sessions at chambers of commerce & industry in major cities to educate maximum traders about the benefits of tax filing. He said that FBR was withdrawing cash from bank accounts of the business community through scrutiny and it should stop this practice as it will promote trust deficit and encourage people to remain in the informal economy in order to save themselves from unnecessary troubles. He said that a friendly tax system would restore the confidence of taxpayers and bring more people into the tax system, therefore, the government should give top priority to developing a business friendly tax regime. ICCI President Pakistan was confronted with many economic challenges including rising debt burden, fiscal deficit, low tax revenue collection and the best way to overcome these challenges was to focus on promoting documentation of the economy. He said that the government was under obligation to ensure that the benefits of development and other steps aimed at public welfare were judiciously and equitably accessible to all its citizens. However, this objective could not be achieved without getting rid of foreign loans and generating enough indigenous resources for which proper documentation of the economy and increasing the size of the formal economy was very important. Fatma Azim Senior Vice President and Abdul Rehman Khan Vice President ICCI said that the construction package announced by the Prime Minister Imran Khan was a step in the right direction to bring hidden assets in the documented economy and encourage more businesses and investors to participate in the legal economy.