Staff Reporter Islamabad
Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin said that Canada was one of the major devel-opment partners of Pakistan, stressing the need to further strengthening business and economic link-ages between the two countries.
During a meeting with High Commissioner of Canada for Pakistan, Wendy Gilmour, who called on him here, the minister stated that Pakistan had long-standing and multidimensional ties with Canada.
Extending a warm welcome to the Canadian High Commissioner, the Finance Minister said Canada has a large number of Pakistani diaspora and people to people contacts contribute an important compo-nent of the bilateral relations.
He briefed the Canadian High Commissioner about the recent economic developments and initiatives, saying that enhancing revenue collection, boosting exports, increasing remittances and making the en-ergy sector sustainable were the foremost priorities of the current government.
In addition to these, the government would promote agriculture, housing and SME sector while Kamyab Pakistan Program would be its signature project, he added.
The minister added that for inclusive and sustain-able growth, the government was preparing various short, medium and long term plans in 14 priority areas and it was his firm belief that these plans would bring about a turnaround of the economy and establish it on a more sound footing.
On the occasion, the Canadian High Commissioner thanked the minister for his time and informed him that the Canadian Business Community saw great investment potential in wind-power generation, power transmission systems as well as mining sector in Pakistan.
She stated that government’s support in these areas would attract Canadian investors to bring their busi-nesses to Pakistan.
The finance minister assured the Canadian high commissioner of his support for attracting invest-ment in Pakistan.
