Pakistan holds conference to scale up trade, investment amid economic crisis

Amid the ongoing economic crisis, Pakistan held an 'Envoy Conference on Economic Diplomacy' to scale up trade and investment in the country.

The two-day conference which was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad was attended by Pakistan's Ambassadors to Japan, Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, UAE, Turkey, UK, Spain, Italy and Germany.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan attended the concluding session of the conference where the recommendations based on inputs of the participants were presented to him.

In his remarks, Pakistan Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi stressed that economic diplomacy should constitute the core of Pakistan's foreign policy in a changing global environment.

The South-Asian nation is going through an economic crisis as the United States decided to cut off the financial aid to the country in the view of terrorist attacks. The US views Pakistan as a safe haven for the terrorists and insurgents responsible for the 17 years old war going on in the neighbouring country Afghanistan.

Pentagon, in September, had cut off aid worth 300 million USD due to the growing concerns regarding the Islamabad's failure to tackle the militants.

In August, the Congress had also slashed the security-oriented financial aid to Pakistan.

Pakistan, however, has sought help from several countries including Saudi Arabia and China as its economy has been in limbo for a long time.

However, Pakistan secured loans up to USD 6 billion from Saudi Arabia on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh in October.

Islamabad has been seeking commercial loans of 2 billion USD from Beijing amid the debt-ridden country seeking a bailout package from International Monetary Fund (IMF). China has already refused to provide balance of payment (BoP) support to Pakistan.

It was already speculated that Pakistan would have to seek a loan package from IMF following the elections held on July 25. Pakistan had formally approached the funding organisation seeking financial assistance to address its economic challenges.