ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that Qatar will provide jobs to 100,000 skilled Pakistanis and termed the recent LNG Agreement with Qatar as a breakthrough for Pakistan’s self-sufficiency in energy.
He was talking to a group of leading businessmen of the country in Islamabad on Friday. The Prime Minister said the LNG bought from Qatar at a very low price will not only cater for the CNG Sector, industrial, commercial and domestic consumers but will also help in reinvigorating country’s non-efficient power generation plants into high efficiency low cost power plants.
He said the Qatari leadership has felt pride in the technological advancement and excellence of Pakistan’s defence production industry. The Prime Minister announced that Qatar has decided to employ an additional one hundred thousand skilled Pakistanis in near future.
Nawaz Sharif said energy sector was put on priority to generate 10,000 MWs of affordable electricity till 2018 that would lead to end of load-shedding and reduction in cost of electricity.
The participants briefed the Prime Minister about existing business environment in Pakistan and shared their proposals for achieving rapid growth in Pakistan’s economy. The business leaders also requested the Prime Minister for zero rated sales tax regime for export sector to facilitate export led growth.
The Prime Minister agreed to this proposal and directed for introducing the regime from first July this year. The Prime Minister also constituted a committee to evaluate the proposals given by the participants for coming up with firm recommendations within next 10 days to reach at final decision.
