FARUKH SHEHZAD

Geneva, CH / Islamabad, DEC 2020 - The World Economic Forum released the Global Competitiveness Report 2020 today. The long-standing Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) rankings have been paused. A special edition, published this year, elaborates on the priorities for recovery and revival, and considers the building blocks of a transformation towards new economic systems. The report assesses the features that helped countries be more effective in managing the pandemic and provides an analysis of which countries are best poised for an economic transformation towards systems that combine “productivity”, “people” and “planet” targets.

Almost one year after the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, the deep economic recession has triggered continues to have profound economic and social consequences. While no nation has emerged unscathed, this year’s Global Competitiveness Report finds that countries with advanced digital economies and digital skills, robust social safety nets and previous experience dealing with epidemics have better managed the impact of the pandemic on their economies and citizens.

 “The World Economic Forum has long encouraged policymakers to broaden their focus beyond short-term growth to long-term prosperity. This Report makes clear the priorities for making economies more productive, sustainable, and inclusive as we emerge from the crisis. The stakes for transforming our economic systems simply could not be higher,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan and the Country Partner Institute of the Future of Economic Progress System Initiative, World Economic Forum, said, “The success stories from Pakistan in the light of the Global Competitiveness Index 2020 is the performance and strengthening of the institutions, scaleup of digitization both at the public and private sectors.

“the surge for online services and data has increased more than 200 times in CoVID19 (Coronavirus) time period, both at the domestic and international level. CoVID19 has locked down communities and businesses into isolated environments, making the entire world go into Digital Incubation Ecosystems. The work from home has led to an increase in all levels of digital consumption across all stratas of the society. The Pakistani businesses have been forced to deploy digital solutions across all segments of the society including, Education, Business Processing, Services, and non-manufacturing etc. He further said, The Government needs to devise a system to use digital technologies for the welfare of the people. Also, tax regimes on technologies that help fight COVID-19 and contribute to data generation should be revisited to create more value for the citizens.”

The Report identified factors that registered the most negative for emerging and developing economies as Pakistan are the Business costs of crime and violence, Judicial independence, Organized Crime, Extent of market dominance and public trust in politicians. The Report identifies factors that registered the most positive shifts for emerging and developing countries are Government’s responsiveness to change, Efficiency of train services, Venture capital availability, country capacity to attract talent and collaboration within a company.

In recognition of the extraordinary developments in 2020 and of the unified global effort required to tackle the health crisis and its socioeconomic fallout, the Global Competitiveness Index rankings have been suspended for 2020. The 2021 edition will see a return to benchmarking, providing a refreshed framework to guide future economic growth.

The report reveals that countries like Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, Estonia, and the United States with advanced digital economies and digital skills have been more successful at keeping their economies running while their citizens worked from home. These countries have performed well on this measure.

In advanced economies, business leaders saw increased market concentration, a marked decline in competition for services, reduced collaboration between companies and fewer available skilled workers in the employment market as the shift to digitally enabled work accelerated. On the positive side, leaders saw greater government response to change, improved collaboration within companies and increased availability of venture capital.

In emerging markets and developing economies, business leaders noted an increase in business costs related to crime and violence, a reduction in judicial independence, a further reduction in competition and growing market dominance, and stagnating trust in politicians. They, too, expressed positive views on government response to change, collaboration within companies, and venture capital availability. They also noted an increase in the capacity to attract talent, potentially facilitated by the more digital labor market.

“During this time of profound uncertainty, the health crisis and economic downturn have forced a fundamental rethink of growth and its relationship to outcomes for people and planet. Policy-makers have a remarkable opportunity to seize this moment and shape new economic systems that are highly productive while growing shared prosperity and environmental sustainability,” said Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director, World Economic Forum.

Key insights:

· Digital infrastructure investments: The transition to a greener and more inclusive economy must be underpinned by significant investments in infrastructure, including an expansion of digital networks. Denmark, Estonia, Finland and the Netherlands are currently best prepared to do this.

· Greener economy: Greening the economy will require upgrading energy infrastructure, transport networks and commitments from both the public and private sectors to extend and respect multilateral agreements on environmental protection. Denmark, Estonia, Finland and the Netherlands are best prepared to drive economic transformation through infrastructure. Less prepared countries include Russia, Indonesia, Turkey and South Africa.

· Longer-term investments: Increasing incentives to direct financial resources towards long-term investments in the real economy can strengthen stability and expand inclusion. Finland, Sweden, New Zealand and Austria are relatively better prepared than other advanced economies, while the United States, currently the largest financial centre in the world, is among the least ready.

· More progressive taxation: Shifting to more progressive taxation systems emerges as a key driver of economic transformation. On this measure, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Australia, and South Africa score highest, thanks to relatively well-balanced and progressive tax structures.

· Expanded public services: Future-ready education, labour laws and income support should be better integrated to expand the social protection floor. Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom are relatively better prepared than others to combine adequate labour protection with new safety net models. South Africa, India, Greece, and Turkey are less prepared.

The concepts of economic transformation are relatively new, and data is limited. Data from 37 countries was mapped against the 11 priorities outlined in the report and found that while no country is fully prepared for recovery and economic transformation, some are better placed than others. The report estimates that a 10% increase in readiness scores could lead to a $300 billion increase in the GDP figures of these 37 countries combined.

The report considers pathways for revival and transformation in four areas: the enabling environment, human capital, markets, and innovation. The report advocates a gradual transition from furlough schemes to a combination of proactive investments in new labor market opportunities, a scaling-up of reskilling and upskilling programmes, and safety nets to help drive the recovery. In the longer term, leaders should work to update education curricula, reform labor laws, and improve the use of new talent-management technologies.

While financial systems have become significantly more stable since the last financial crisis, they need to be more inclusive, and growing market concentration and raising barriers to the movement of goods and people risk hampering the transformation of markets. The report recommends introducing financial incentives for companies to engage in sustainable and inclusive investments, while updating competition and anti-trust frameworks. Although entrepreneurial culture has flourished in the past decade, the creation of new firms, breakthrough technologies and products and services that deploy these technologies has stalled. The report recommends that countries expand public investment in R&D while encouraging it in the private sector. In the longer term, countries should support the creation of “markets of tomorrow” and motivate firms to embrace diversity to enhance creativity and market relevance.

Over the next year, the World Economic Forum will be hosting a series of communities and dialogues to develop new benchmarks, new standards, and new actions for building new economic models that combine productivity, sustainability, and shared prosperity. The Global Future Council on New Agenda for Fiscal and Monetary Policy, the Global Future Council on New Agenda for Economic Growth and Recovery, the Community of Chief Economists, the Champions for a New Dashboard for the New Economy and the Stewardship Board of the New Economy and Society Platform will be involved in shaping this effort. All readers are invited to share their views into this conversation, supporting collective efforts to “build back better”.

The Global Competitiveness Report is the flagship publication of the World Economic Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of the New Economy and Society. The Platform provides the opportunity to advancing prosperous, inclusive, and equitable economies and societies. It focuses on co-creating a new vision in three interconnected areas: growth and competitiveness; education, skills, and work; and equality and inclusion. Working together, stakeholders deepen their understanding of complex issues, shape new models and standards, and drive scalable, collaborative action for systemic change.

Over 100 of the world’s leading companies and 100 international, civil society and academic organizations currently work through the Platform to promote new approaches to competitiveness in the Fourth Industrial Revolution economy; deploy education and skills for tomorrow’s workforce; build a new pro-worker and pro-business agenda for jobs; and integrate equality and inclusion into the new economy, aiming to reach 1 billion people with improved economic opportunities.

Mishal Pakistan is Pakistan’s leading strategic communication and design company. It is also the country Partner Institute of the Future of Economic Progress System Initiative, World Economic Forum. Mishal is responsible to generate primary data on more than 100 indicators measuring Pakistan’s competitiveness. Mishal’s foremost domain of activity is behavior change communication, strategic communication with a spotlight on media and perception management.=DN

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• PARC and NAIK will jointly work for the development of agroforestry, livestock, fisheries, and poultry. Dr. Azeem Khan, Chairman, PARC

ISLAMABAD, DEC 17 /DN/ - Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) agreed on a beneficial cooperation in agricultural research development with The Hungarian National Agricultural Research and Innovation Centre (NAIK) by signing a memorandum of understanding on 15^th December, 2020 at PARC HQs, Islamabad. 

Chairman PARC, Dr. Muhammad Azeem Khan and Deputy Director General NAIK, Dr. Istvan Balla signed the documents on behalf of their respective organizations. The Hungarian delegation virtually participated in the meeting.

ISLAMABAD, DEC 17 /DN/ - Egyptian Ambassador to Pakistan, Tarek Dahroug on Thursday called on Federal Minister of Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi, on Thursday.

The Egyptian Ambassador expressed keen interest in Pakistan’s coastal development as well as expanding trade ties between the two countries. 

Minister of Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi briefed Dr Tarek Dahroug regarding the current Government-to-Government model in the maritime sector. 

Also, the Egyptian Ambassador apprised the Federal Maritime Affairs Minister about the latest developments regarding the Suez Canal and invited the Minister to Cairo for further discussion. 

The Envoy also appreciated the efforts of Minister Zaidi for developing the maritime sector and the blue economy in Pakistan along with focusing on export growth and facilitation.=DN

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ISLAMABAD, DEC 17 /DN/ - Prime Minister Imran Khan has appointed Amer Ahmed Hashmi as Chairperson for the Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA), according to a notification issued by the cabinet division on Wednesday, 9^th December 2020.

In accordance with the Ordinance for the establishment of Special Technology Zones Authority on December 02, 2020 by President Arif Alvi, the new authority will focus on the growth of scientific and technological ecosystem in the country, primarily through fostering the development of technology zones and high-tech industrial parks, thereby contributing to the acceleration of the evolution of the national system of innovation. Headquartered in Islamabad, the federal body will help promote the global competitiveness of the domestic technology sector, as well as provide institutional and legislative support for attracting foreign direct investments in the high-tech sector. The Prime Minister of Pakistan is the President of Board of Governors of the STZ Authority.

As a global strategist, IT executive, and entrepreneur, Amer Hashmi possesses diverse global experience in organizational leadership with companies like IBM and MCI System house. He was the founding CEO of Si3 – Pakistan’s pioneering technology outsourcing firm that helped stimulate IT systems integration in public and private organizations in Pakistan. His work has been featured in Forbes Asia, Businessweek & Financial Times UK.

Mr. Hashmi spent the last 10 years building knowledge ecosystem in his capacity as Advisor and Chief Strategy Officer at National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST). He was also the Chairman of Executive Committee of NUST Science & Technology Park and founding President of the Global Think Tank Network (GTTN).

Mr. Hashmi is a graduate of York University, Toronto and has been trained in several technical and specialized programs including an executive leadership on ‘Innovation for Economic Development’ from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.=DN

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Munaza Kazmi

Economies that are afflicted by a high level of corruption which involves the misuse of power in the form of money or authority to achieve certain goals in illegal, dishonest, or unfair ways are not capable of prospering. Corrupted economies are not able to function properly since corruption prevents the natural laws of the economy from functioning freely. As a result, corruption in a nation's political and economic operations causes its entire society to suffer.

The average income of countries with a high level of corruption is about a third of that of countries with a low level of corruption. Also, the infant mortality rate in such countries is about three times higher and the literacy rate is 25% lower. However, no country has been able to completely eliminate corruption, but the level of corruption in countries with emerging market economies is much higher than the developed countries.

In the corrupt economy deals are made, contracts are awarded in the terms of corruption, or economic operations are carried out, leads to monopolies in the economy. These are businesses that can use their connections or money to bribe government officials, resulting in manipulation and market mechanisms that ensure them as a sole provider of goods or services in that market. 

These monopolists do not have to compete against alternative providers, so they tend to keep their prices high and are not compelled to improve the quality of goods or services. Embedded in those high prices are also the illegal costs of the corrupt transactions that were necessary to create such a monopoly. 

Likewise, in best practice, companies choose their suppliers via tender processes which serve as mechanisms to enable the selection of suppliers offering the best combination of price and quality. But in corrupted economies, the companies that otherwise would not be qualified to win the tenders are often awarded projects as a result of unfair or illegal tenders. That results in excessive expenditure in the execution of projects and substandard or failed projects, leading to overall inefficiency in the use of resources.

Furthermore, corrupted economies are characterized by a disproportionately small middle class and significant divergence between the living standards of the upper class and lower class. Since most of the country's capital is aggregated in the hands of oligarchs. In this regard, small businesses are not widely spread and are usually discouraged because they face unfair competition and illegal pressures by large companies. Certain industries are more prone to corruption than others, making small businesses in these sectors even more vulnerable to unethical business practices.

On top of everything, little confidence can be placed in the legal system of corrupted economies in which legal judgments can be rigged, potential innovators cannot be certain their invention will be protected by patents and not copied by those who know they can get away with it by bribing the authorities. There is thus a disincentive for innovation, and as a result, emerging countries are usually the importers of technology because such technology is not created within their own societies. 

Moreover, small businesses in such countries tend to avoid having their businesses officially registered with tax authorities to avoid taxation. As a result, the income generated by many businesses exists outside the official economy, and thus are not subject to state taxation or included in the calculation of the country's GDP.

Another negative of shadow businesses is they usually pay their employees decreased wages, lower than the minimum amount designated by the government. Also, they do not provide acceptable working conditions.

Corruption is one of the disincentives for foreign investment. Since investors will avoid investing in countries where there is a high level of corruption.

Also, it has an adverse impact on the quality of education and healthcare provided in countries with emerging economies. Corruption increases the cost of education in countries where bribery and connections play an important role in the recruitment and promotion of teachers. As a result, the quality of education decreases, and this affects the overall health of the economy.

Similarly, corruption in the designation of healthcare providers and recruitment of personnel, as well as the procurement of medical supplies and equipment, that results in inadequate healthcare treatment and a substandard medical supply, lowering the overall quality of healthcare.

Many countries with emerging economies suffer from a high level of corruption that slows their overall development. As a result, the entire society got infected. So, why not become a sensible and responsible citizen to save the country to save the society, since it is where we all belong to.

ISLAMABAD, DEC 15 – Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, Chairman Pakistan Ulema Council, Special Aide to Prime Minister on Interreligious Harmony and Middle East has said that minorities living in Pakistan are not second class citizens. Rights and privileges, which Constitution of Pakistan has defined for minorities should be acknowledged by everyone.

He said, youths will also be made part of Interfaith Harmony Councils along with Religious scholars.While addressing Provincial Youth Conference, which held here on Tuesday in aegis of Diocese of Peshawar, Church of Pakistan in Islamabad, Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi said that Islam is a religion of peace, security and moderation and everyone in the country should play their respective role for development and prosperity of the country.He said that forceful conversions and underage marriages issues are being probed case to case.

Daughters of minorities are as respected and honoured as other daughters of the nation.Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi said that Blasphemy Law is protector of humanity and Ulemas-Mashaykh will play their effective and influenced role to keep check on misuse of blasphemy law in the country.Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi underlined that in the making of Pakistan, minorities also played very key role and Constitution of Pakistan has categorically defined rights for majority and minorities’ populace in the country.Islamic Shariah urges on Muslim majority to take care of the Minorities living in Muslim state.

Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi said that non-Muslim youths don’t need to be disturbed as Prime Minister Imran khan has announced to address all prevailing issues of minorities on priority. He said that US State Department enlisted Pakistan among countries violating Religious freedom, which is against ground realities, said Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi adding that we invite US Commission for Religious Freedom to visit Pakistan and we will make them witness the realities on Religious freedom in Pakistan.US, Europe, Britain and other countries should not affect from baseless propaganda against Pakistan.The world Leadership should look into Indian atrocities at minorities in India.

French President Emmanuel Macron by supporting the elements making sacriligeous caricatures spoiled all endeavours on account of interfaith dialogue and interfaith harmony.Pakistan has demanded to ensure legislation at world level for sanctity of all the Heavenly Religions, prophets and heavenly scriptures and OIC has also endorsed all these efforts of Pakistan.While talking to media following the conference, Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi said that opposition should come for dialogues on the issues  of extremism, terrorism, inflation, corruption and electoral reforms.

Nawaz Sharif Government did not fall through protests and sit-ins of Imran khan, similarly Imran khan Government should not be dethroned through longmarch and sit-in protests.Responding to a question, Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi said that language being used in PDM processions is completely against our moral, religious and political values.Achakzai should seek apology on his accusations. Nation knows very well who is traitor and who is allied of the enemies of Pakistan, said Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi.

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Akan Rakhmetullin

On December 16, 2020 Kazakhstan is celebrating the 29th anniversary of its existence as a sovereign country. In historical terms this is, certainly, not a lot. But what should be well kept in mind, is that modern-day Kazakhstan and its people occupy a huge landmass, where Europe meets Asia and where ancestry of contemporary Kazakhs created and ran states, which had played their own distinguished role in Eurasian history. This is what we in Kazakhstan keep in mind. In doing so Kazakhstan massively marked this year the 750th anniversary of the mighty Golden Horde, whose founders set up the lineage of Kazakh khans. This is the reason why Kazakhstan is fully eligible to identify itself as one of the Golden Horde’s historical heir nations.

It causes no doubt that modern-day Kazakhstan, which is geographically located at the very heart of the world powers strategic interests, is simply destined to bridge Europe and Asia both politically and economically. This is what probably constitutes a fundamental mission of Kazakhstan, which it inherited from its predecessor states, and our country has been following for the last 29 years.

It is not enough to just comprehend the greatness of that mission. One must comply with it in every possible sense. For this reason, from the very onset of our independence in 1991 the First President of Kazakhstan and Leader of the Nation Nursultan Nazarbayev clearly articulated the country’s strong commitment. It is to build up an open, democratic and economically competitive society. That was the primary goal to achieve, what Kazakhstan’s multi-vector and peacemaking foreign policy was aimed at.

We are the world’s largest landlocked country, which makes us in turn to be keen in benefiting from it through extending the network of trade and transport routes in every possible way via Kazakhstan terrain with the aim of linking Europe and Asia, as did earlier the Great Silk Road.

After all, a primary time milestone for our country is 2050, which is expected to be the year of Kazakhstan’s joining the list of 30 most developed countries in the world. Kazakhstan has everything to meet this incredibly ambitious objective, and all we need to do is just to be sufficiently intelligent and careful in handling assets we have.

Kazakhstan is known today as the largest economy across Central Asia. This largely occurred due to our country’s possession of vast natural resources and skilled workforce. This, in turn, enables the government to develop vigorously the national economy’s diversification policy, leading the economy away from its any exorbitant dependence solely on raw materials export. Therefore, there are some initiatives that are taken for implementation to develop the economy in various areas, such as transport, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, petrochemicals and the food industry.

Another unique feature of the Kazakh economy is its openness and attractiveness for investments, including ones from the outside. This is brightly demonstrated by the relative statistics. Within the period from 1991 up to 2020 Kazakhstan succeeded to attract into its domestic economy 330 billion US dollars as direct foreign investments. This amount of investments certainly indicates that foreign investors are willing to come to Kazakhstan because of its political stability, educated personnel and capability to provide access to large regional markets. For instance, Kazakhstan membership in the Eurasian Economic Union makes investors access the Russian market with more than 140 million consumers and the common market of the Union with more than 180 million consumers.

Apart from that, by opening reginal offices in Kazakhstan overseas companies get easier access to the markets of West China (300 million consumers) and those of the Caspian countries (150 million consumers). This sort of understanding encouraged some big international companies to open their regional headquarters in our country. A number of global technology leaders and international companies, such as General Electric, Toyota Motors, Chevron, Hyundai Motors, Sanofi, Linde, Metro Group, Peugeot and Sumimoto Metal Mining, currently operate in Kazakhstan.

It is worthwhile to note that private investors activity in Kazakhstan is also driven by the Kazakh government’s forceful policy, which is designed to decrease steadily the volume of the state involvement in the economy. For example, over the last three years about 500 Kazakhstani companies were put up for sale under the privatization program, while assets sold to investors accumulated about 500 million US dollars. Privatization of large state-owned enterprises will keep going until the state’s share in the Kazakh economy reaches 18%.

Furthermore, the government’s measures to stimulate the growth of small and medium-sized businesses suggest that their total share in Kazakhstan GDP will increase to 35% by the year 2025. This goal is also to be achieved through implementation of the national strategy for gender equality, published in 2017, aimed at increasing women’s share in small and medium-sized businesses.

All business activity stimulating measures to have been mentioned above are reflected and well credited in leading international rating studies. Thus, the World Bank’s “Doing business for 2020” report ranks Kazakhstan as the 25th in the world, what is three positions higher, compared to last year’s indicators.

The spread of COVID-19 throughout the globe had certainly a negative effect to the Kazakh economy’s growth rates. But even these sorts of unfavorable circumstances prove the degree of Kazakhstan economy’s openness to the outside world and its inevitable dependence upon ongoing trends in the global economy. Nevertheless, Kazakhstan’s GDP growth is expected to reach 2.8% in 2021 and 4.6% by 2025.

Upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled to be held on January 10, 2021 should also contribute to further stabilization of the socio-political situation in Kazakhstan. It should be noted that the elections will be held after some norms were introduced into the legislation in the middle of the current year. These norms are to make the competition among political parties more intense and to confirm Kazakhstan’s commitment to develop truly democratic and responsible civil society.

There is no doubt that such massive economic and domestic political transformations cannot be drafted and implemented without favorable external conditions properly ensured. This is exactly the most fundamental task of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy, which has constantly been designed to develop a peaceful and constructive dialogue with all countries of the world.

It is well known that at the very beginning of the 1990-s our country, which then was little known in the world, renounced nuclear weapons it inherited from the USSR, and shortly before that renouncement closed the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site on its territory. Besides, Kazakhstan and other brotherly regional countries did their best to fix in legal terms the status of Central Asia as the nuclear-weapon-free zone.

Later on, of course, foreign policy of Kazakhstan got a massive credit from the international community. Over the years it became visible, when Kazakhstan was elected a chair country in some big international organizations, for instance, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, as well as hosted global international events. Among the latter events the Summit of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the First Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Summit on Science and Technology both held in Kazakhstan in 2010 and 2017 respectively, are to be particularly noted. Election of Kazakhstan as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the years 2017-2018 was our foreign policy’s another great achievement, which significantly raised our understanding of what were the essence of global problems and their possible solutions.

Nowadays Kazakhstan is trying to apply this understanding upon the way it develops interstate relationship with all countries over the world, including, definitely, friendly Pakistan. With this in mind Kazakhstan greatly values a high- level political partnership between our countries, which was established from the very beginning of Kazakh-Pak relations.

The Independence Day is always a good opportunity for us to recall those countries, which were among the first to recognize Kazakhstan as a sovereign and independent state. One of them, as it is known, was Pakistan, which Kazakhstan legalized cooperation principles with in February of 1992 at the state visit of the President of H.E. Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev to Islamabad. Since then relations between Kazakhstan and Pakistan have developed only in a friendly and constructive way. Today the main task for both sides is to make a bilateral interstate dialogue a systematic and tangible result-oriented one, both in bilateral and multilateral cooperation formats.

The 9th meeting of the Pakistan-Kazakhstan Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural cooperation, which was held in Islamabad in February 2020 appeared to be a major breakthrough in a domain of a bilateral relationship. The meeting outcomes set up some long-awaited new guidelines for development between Kazakhstan and Pakistan in the years to come. Another point with regards to that Intergovernmental Commission meeting was that it took place after a five-year break following the previous meeting and surely became for this reason a quite notable event within the chronology of official Kazakh-Pak contacts through the outgoing year of 2020.

Another big event for bilateral relations was the maiden round of political consultations to have been also held in Islamabad in February 2020 at the level Foreign Ministries.

I note with great sense of satisfaction that trade volume between our countries, which was steadily declining over the past few years, has visibly increased this year. According to the Kazakhstan’s Bureau of National Statistics, the trade volume amounted within January-October 2020 to almost 37 million US dollars, while it totalled just 27 million US dollars through the entire 2019. These indicators are very clear to show us that trade and economic cooperation between our countries definitely has a potential to be further enhanced and extended.

Besides trade and economic relationship, Kazakhstan is very interested in exploring Pakistan’s vast experience in carrying out peacekeeping missions under the UN mandate. Defence and Foreign ministries of both countries are already in touch with mutual intention to develop this UN peacekeeping domain of Kazakh-Pak relationship. My personal belief is that launching a bilateral cooperation on international peacekeeping track is likely to be the best demonstration of friendly cooperation existing between Kazakhstan and Pakistan.

In conclusion I would like to extend the hope that the forthcoming year 2021, or the year of the 30th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s Independence, will be even more prolific in terms of Kazakh-Pak contacts to get our bilateral relations stronger.

The writer is the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Pakistan.

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ISLAMABAD, DEC 15 - Bulgarian embassy in Islamabad needs a professional diplomat as the post is still vacant ever since services of Ambassador Aleksandar Borisov Parashkevov were terminated on corruption charges.

Bulgaria and Pakistan have had excellent relations. Respective ambassadors and charge d affaires who were appointed in Pakistan to represent their country, had put in their best efforts to promote and strengthen bilateral relations.

In late 90s Mr. Angel served as Charge D Affaires. During his tenure relations between two countries touched new heights. He remained in Pakistan for quite some time and contributed greatly towards cementing of Pakistan-Bulgaria relations. Mr. Angel is now a senior officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria.

Then came Mr. Roumen who joined the Embassy as Charge D Affaires and then was elevated to fully fledged ambassador. Mr. Roumen stayed in Pakistan for more than eight years. His was perhaps the best time when relations between Pakistan and Bulgaria witnessed new horizons.

Ambassador Roumen not only focused on diplomatic relations but he spent much of his time in building people to people contacts. Likewise, culture was yet another sphere where Ambassador Roumen did quite well.

Because of his benign nature and elegant personality he was able  to make good friends in Pakistan. It is because of his selfless services that he is still remembered in Pakistan.

Keeping in view proximity of relations between the two countries, Bulgaria needs in Pakistan a diplomat like Ambassador Roumen who not only understands this region very well but enjoys impeccable reputation among Pakistanis and government circles.

Respective diplomats have done a lot to build a strong relationship with Pakistan therefore their efforts should not go waste. It is possible only if Ambassador Roumen of a diplomat like him is appointed in Pakistan.

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COURTESY DNA NEWS

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ISLAMABAD, Dec. 15  – Pakistan has ordered to ease visa facility for Chinese investors to attract investment in the country, Gwadar Pro reported on Tuesday.

According to Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed that directions in this regard had been issued.

“The directives have been issued to ease visa facility for the Chinese investors. This is aimed at attracting investment in the country,” Ahmed said.

The Interior Minister expressed the commitment to making efforts towards bringing improvement in law and order in the country to facilitate the investors.

Over the weekend, Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company (FIEDMC) chairman Mian Kashif Ashfaq said more than 25 Chinese companies had signed accords to invest in Allama Iqbal Industrial City, Faisalabad alone.

Chairing a meeting, Mian Kashif said several Chinese and other foreign companies were in contact with the FIEDMC for investment in the city.

He said the Punjab provincial government had promised full cooperation to FIEDMC, which was playing due role in fulfilling the prime minister’s mission.

Separately, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said Pakistan had become an attractive market for the Chinese investors through China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The minister said that CPEC projects had a great future and it would change the fate of the region along bringing economic prosperity. He said, “we welcome Chinese investors in Pakistan”.

The minister disclosed that his ministry has planned to uplift semi-conductor industry and bring value addition to Pakistan’s own products with the cooperation of Chinese friends.

The minister said Pakistan was also focusing on renewable energy which is the future for Pakistan’s power system.

He said in this regard, his ministry has approached the Chinese companies to shift their solar panel manufacturing units to Pakistan.

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