Daily Times

KARACHI: The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday said the Board of Investment and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan have become white elephants, which is apparent from falling investment and exports.

No on is held responsible for the situation, which indicates non-serious attitude of the government and ability of its economic managers, said PEW chief Dr Murtaza Mughal.

He said that foreign investment in Pakistan is down by 58.2 percent to $709 million while it is $850 million in Sri Lanka, $1.5 billion in Bangladesh, $3.5 billion in India and $4 billion in Ghana. Pakistan saw a slide of almost five percent in exports to 23.8 billion dollars in one year while Bangladesh exports stood at dollar 35 billion during the same year, which is amazing, he said. He noted that despite receding oil prices exports were going down while imports were increasing touching mark of 45.9 billion dollars, which is a dangerous trend, pushing trade gap to 22.1 billion dollars.

The situation has discouraged foreign and local investors paving way for flight of capital, he said, adding that situation will remain the same unless few heads roll. Pakistan has become nine notches down in ease of doing business in last four years while economic and export managers continue to evade responsibility by putting all blame on power crisis.

Dr Murtaza Mughal said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has promised to show the door to inefficient but that never happened that emboldened the non-performers and incompetent.