FM Qureshi urges envoys to focus on economic diplomacy

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Friday urged the country’s ambassadors to focus on economic diplomacy to tackle the prevailing economic crisis.     

Addressing the final session of a two-day envoys conference on ‘Economic Diplomacy’ in Islamabad, Shah Mehmood said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government received the record trade deficit in heritage and added that the financial assistance of International Monetary Fund (IMF) is needed to come out of the current financial crisis. He said that they were planning to approach IMF for the last time.

Shah Mehmood stressed on joint efforts to bring the country out of economic crises and urged the prime minister to assign targets to the ambassadors and ensured that they will not disappoint the premier. He urged the envoy to project Pakistan’s positive image in the world.

He said that Pakistan’s share in global trade is 0.12 percent and added that we have to devise strategies to find out ways to come out of the economic crisis keeping in view the real situation.

It is pertinent to mention here that a two-day Envoys Conference on Economic Diplomacy had kicked-off in Islamabad on December 27, aimed to attract foreign investment in Pakistan.

Addressing the inaugural session, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had underscored the need of economic diplomacy, and said government has placed economic revival and growth at the highest pedestal of its reform agenda.

“Pakistan is the sixth most populous country, with the third largest number of English speakers, and a growing number of Chinese and Arabic speakers,” the minister had said.