Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday said that after attaining what he called “stability” within the economy, his government’s next target was to extend exports and cut imports to save lots of exchange and make wealth that might bring prosperity to the country.
He stressed the necessity for manufacturing all kinds of products at the local level in order that people could believe locally-made items rather than imported products.
“If we will make a weapon of mass destruction, then why not ordinary products,” the prime minister said while addressing the closing ceremony of a three-day ICEE (Interior, Construction, Electrical and Electronics) Expo, titled ‘Building Clean and Green Cities’, organised by the Rawalpindi Chamber of Conference and Industries (RCCI) together with the Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority (NAPHDA) here at the Pak-China Friendship Centre.
The prime minister said the govt had taken steps to extend the country’s exports. “A country cannot progress till its accounting deficit is overcome and its financial resources aren’t expanding. If wealth creation isn’t achieved, it can chock the country’s economy,” he added.
He said the govt was fully committed to encouraging and facilitating different sectors of the economy for the aim of wealth creation to permanently overcome the country’s financial challenges.
He said the govt was vigorously implementing its plans to market the development industry and incentivise the exports sector because when the economy moved on revenues were generated, resulting in jobs creation and prosperity.
On his vision for Naya Pakistan, PM Khan said his first priority was to tug the people from poverty as about 25 per cent of the country’s population lived under the poverty level , whereas another chunk of some 25pc lived on the margins of this line.
Underling the necessity for becoming self-reliant, he said that when a system became corrupt, it ultimately putrefied society. “It is named a system of corruption,” he observed.
The government, he said, would launch the Kamyab Pakistan programme on Aug 9, under which the underprivileged families would be facilitated with technical education and extension of interest-free loans. “One member from each poor family would get technical education, each family would get health card with a million worth of freed from cost treatment facility; besides through micro-financing, they might tend interest-free loans for construction of homes,” he added.
The prime minister said that thanks to the lack of design and consideration by the past rulers, katchi abadis (shanty settlements) have sprawled across the country. “Karachi alone consists of 40pc katchi abadis,” he added.
About the government’s initiatives to counter the effects of worldwide warming and global climate change, he said the ‘Ten Billion Tree Tsunami’ project was an endeavour during this regard. He regretted that Rawalpindi had become a city of concrete slabs. In 1914 the town had received snowfall. Lahore and Peshawar were famed as cities of gardens, but all the country’s major cities were now expanding at a rapid speed, he said.
Punjab, Balochistan CMs meet PM
Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar called on Prime Minister Khan and discussed with the latter progress on the continued development projects within the province. Over 4,000 development projects approved at district and divisional levels also came under discussion.
Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Alyani also met PM Khan and discussed with the latter matters concerning development projects within the province.
