Federal Cabinet approves Pak-Turkey Strategic Economic Framework

August 21, 2019: Federal Cabinet has approved Pak-Turkey Strategic Economic Framework to forge stronger cooperation between Pakistan and Turkey.

Briefing newsmen regarding cabinet decisions on Tuesday, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said Prime Minister Imran Khan will head the high-level cooperation committee from Pakistan side while Turkish side will be headed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The framework has nine joint working groups that will be headed by Minister of Economic Affairs from Pakistan side. All sectors of the economy will be covered by joint working groups and 71 actionable items have been included in these.

The items including Free Trade Agreement, Technology Transfer, capacity building, and defense cooperation. This framework will help connect Pakistan with Central Asia, Russia and the West.

Prime Minister told the cabinet about the challenges faced by the government when it came to power. He said the economy that was on verge of default was revived and now it is in sustainable mode. The Current Account Deficit has been brought down by 30 percent and in one year it reduced from 19.8 billion dollars to 13.5 billion dollars.

The meeting also took into consideration the investment friendly policies to encourage foreign investors, especially overseas Pakistanis.

The Cabinet discussed measures to give confidence to businessmen and to ensure business friendly environment. It discussed the procedural challenges in the working of NAB that could deter businessmen on taking decisions.

The Cabinet endorsed the decisions of committee on privatization in its last meeting.

The Cabinet accorded approval of five billion rupees to give interest free loans to poor and homeless people.

The Prime Minister also directed to ensure merit and transparency in the disbursing of loans. He said a mechanism and detailed strategy be made to launch the scheme across the country.