President Asif Ali Zardari has said that granting Most Favored Nation trading status to India was a paradigmatic shift in policy driven by the business sectors on both sides of the border. He said that the decision would reconstruct the region's economies and increase its stability.

This he said addressing a gathering comprising of ambassadors, High Commissioners, diplomats and the members of LCCI Executive Committee, during a dinner hosted by Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry here at Aiwan-e-Sadr today. Governor Punjab Sardar Latif Khan Khosa, Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Barrister Syed Masood Kausar, Governor Gilgit Baltistan' Pir Syed Karam Ali Shah, federal ministers and parliamentarians were also present.

He said that Pakistan has signed Business Investment Treaties with many nations to boost business activities. The President while calling upon the international community for investments in Pakistan said that the Government will provide the best possible enabling environment for the foreign investment. Pakistan, the President said, was committed to promote an investor-friendly environment and it has much more to offer than bad news only.

According to prepared text of his speech, the President said that Pakistan was committed to promoting an investor-friendly environment and was offering the most liberal investment policy regime in the region. The incentives, he said, include full repatriation of capital, capital gains, dividends and profits.

Recounting challenges and opportunities to the Pak economy, the President said that poor infrastructure, load shedding and inadequate gas supply were among the major challenges to the economy. He said that another major issue that concerned the international community was the lack of access to the international markets in the way of Pakistan having trade and not aid.

The President while calling upon the business community to assist the Government in formulation of the policies reiterated his call for ensuring the continuity of the economic policies. One of the greatest issues in our economic development, the President emphasized, has been the absence of continuity in economic policies. The business community should take ownership of the policies and should then defend those policies even as governments change, the President said.

He said that the most pressing economic problem these days was the energy crisis being at the root of all economic problems. He said that the energy problems arose because of the thoughtless reversal of the energy policy of the previous PPP government. Let us learn from it, the President advised saying that the energy crisis reminds us how important it was to develop consensus on the economic policies.

The President said that efforts were afoot to increase the electricity production in the country. He said that the Government was seeking to diversify sources of power generation and was working on coal, thermal and wind power plants.

He said that increase in production of electricity must also accompany with reduction in the price of electricity. That is why, the President said, we are working on alternate sources of energy and have undertaken mega hydro projects like the Basha Dam and raising of the Mangla dam projects.

The President said that the Government was also seeking to import gas and electricity from other countries and that progress had also been made in this regard. Availability of gas to the industry will provide relief and push forward exports, the President said.

Recounting the achievements of the Government in the economic sector, the President highlighted the impact of war on terror on the economy and development and said that Pakistan has lost more 100 billion dollars in foreign investment and the progress of many social programs had to be frozen. He said that that the global financial crisis also hit Pakistan just as it began transition from a military dictatorship to democracy. Inheriting financial crisis and rising commodity prices, the economic problems were compounded by energy crisis. However, over the last four years the Government has taken difficult decisions to get the economy back on track, the President said.

He said that this year real growth in gross domestic product was likely to reach 4% which would be nearly double the last year's rate. He said that during the first nine months of the current year, tax collection has increased by 24%. Remittances from Pakistanis abroad have increased by 21% and exports have increased by 5.5% over last year's base of $25 billion. He said that the foreign exchange reserves have increased to $18 billion in 2011, the largest in history.

He said that the Government has always valued the advice of the business community in finding solutions to the economic problems. We have achieved political consensus on a number of issues. It is time that we worked for consensus of economic policies as well.

He called upon the business community to come forward and share ideas with the Government as it was the time for new Budget and Trade Policy. He said that the wisdom of Public and Private sector can help achieving better results.

The President also called upon the Government to interact with the business community on a regular basis so that their inputs can be reflected in the policies adopted by the democratic Government.