I guarantee investment in country: Zardari

190

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chairperson and former president Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday stressed the need for a “Charter of Economy” and sought formulating long term policies to improve the economy of the country.

The proposal urges all stakeholders to collaborate on formulating a framework for achieving economic growth.

It was first floated by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif four years ago – then the opposition leader – at the very start of the PTI government’s tenure but the idea did not gain much attention.

“Let the major businessmen of Punjab come together. I guarantee investment. First, make people wealthy, and then impose tax on them. Pakistan has the potential to move forward now,” the PPP co-chairperson said during his address at a ceremony organised by the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) in Lahore.

Zardari stated that the PPP had always taken care of the business community, adding that improvement in the economy was essential for future generations.

“An economy is not for five or 10 or 15 years. It is for our children. It is [for] the generation to come.”

He stressed the need to protect, promote, and incentivise local investments and businessmen rather than focusing on multinationals, saying they later repatriate their investments almost five times of their actual amount.

“A foreign investor earns $5 for every dollar invested.”

The PPP co-chairperson elaborated that the country needed foreign exchange reserves of $200 billion, noting that reserves of $20 billion were “nothing”.