ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan, in his address to corporate leaders at the Pakistan Strategy Dialogue at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, asserted that his government has “tried to remove all the hurdles in the way of investors”.
The premier referred to Pakistan’s position in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index 2020 after jumping 28 places and attaining 108th rank from the earlier 136, and stated: “Pakistan was one of the top countries […] we jumped 28 places, off course a long way to go but this is the direction the country is headed.” (Pakistan secured a place among top ten global business climate improvers)
PM Imran recalled the “heavy cost to Pakistan and damage to society” after participating in the war on terror after 9/11, and stated that the first conflict left us with militant groups after the soviets left Afghanistan, and “culture of kalashnikovs and drugs we used to pay for the war and sectarian groups.”
He also pointed out to the war on terror that left us with 70,000 people dead, and “suicide attacks”.
Due to these reasons, the PM apprised the leaders that Pakistan was considered one of the most dangerous places in the world (to travel after the war on terror) when he came into power but his government had decided to partner with peace and not any conflict.
“Secondly, the legacy of 80s when we left with these militant groups still operating in Pakistan, this was the first government that has disarmed them and tried to rehabilitate them.
As a result, the first benefit Pakistan saw was in the field of tourism.”
“In terms of tourism, Pakistan is perhaps one of the most undiscovered countries in the world. It has one of the oldest civilisations, the Indus Valley [civilization] which is 5,000 years old, and has sacred places for four religions, (including) Hinduism, Budhism, Sikhism and then of course Sufism” he said.
“All of this potential was untapped that it has the one of the most undiscovered mountain areas, half of the world peaks over 24000 ft are in Pakistan.”
“So, the first impact was that tourism doubled in one year,” PM Khan said.
“We are one of the most tourism friendly countries and all this potential was untapped, especially the mountain areas,” he said.
“The first impact was that tourism recovered in a year […] we believe Pakistan can collect a lot of revenue from tourism.”
