As part of Government’s efforts to promote economic diplomacy, Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi chaired an interactive session on economic diplomacy on Monday.
The meeting was participated by Pakistan’s envoys to US, Turkey, Austria, Iran, Russia, the Netherlands, and Permanent Representatives to New York and Geneva.
While underscoring the growing significance of geo-economics in international politics, the Foreign Minister stated that economic security was a crucial function of national security. He highlighted the Government’s paradigm shift from geo-political contestation to geo-economic cooperation, and urged the envoys to make concerted efforts to implement the Government’s economic agenda. Apprising about the Government’s robust reform measures for improvement of business climate in the country, he said that Pakistan’s ranking in Ease of Doing Business had significantly improved. Pakistan had secured 6th place among the world’s top 10 business climate improvers and its Business Confidence Ranking increased by 39 points as per OICCI’s latest survey. The Foreign Minister also commended the pivotal role played by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its missions abroad in safeguarding Pakistan’s economic interests, especially in the successful implementation of the Government’s various initiatives/programmes such as Roshan Digital Account Initiative.
During the session, the participants identified the bottlenecks impeding bilateral economic cooperation with the envoys giving their recommendations in this regard. They provided valuable input and insight on how to enhance economic cooperation at bilateral and regional levels.
