Kotri: President Mamnoon Hussain has underlined the need to ‘uproot corrupt elements’ from the system in order to ensure rapid development and progress in the country.
“The journey of national progress was satisfactory till the 1970s but afterwards, the pace of development was stunted because of corruption,” Mamnoon said while addressing traders and industrialists at Kotri city in Jamshoro district of Sindh.
“The country has no shortage of talented and capable people, but corruption and favouritism has affected the performance,” he added. Mamnoon said due to certain problems in the past, the business environment in the country was affected and the national economy suffered.
“But the government devised a comprehensive strategy and took bold steps and as a result, the curse of terrorism has been controlled to a great extent. It is a big success for the incumbent government that entrepreneurs and traders are satisfied with the law and order in the country,” he said.
Mamnoon said the National Action Plan against terrorism was formulated with the backing of the whole nation and it was being implemented effectively. “The process of eradicating the scourge of terrorism is continuing with full political commitment and it is producing positive results,” he said, adding that the fight against terrorism is providing a conducive environment for business and industrial activities.
“In this way, our products will also meet the standard requirement for exports and we will be able to get success in international markets,” he added. President Mamnoon called upon traders and industrialists to explore new markets for enhancing the country’s exports so that foreign exchange could further increase. He also called for making concerted efforts to attain national goal of collective development.
He lamented that no other water reservoirs were constructed after the issue of Kalabagh Dam became contentious which rendered great loss to the country. However, now these mistakes have been rectified and new dams are being constructed, he added.
Talking with reference to the ongoing development projects, the president said work on power generation projects was continuing under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and hoped that the issue of load-shedding would be resolved by the year 2018. “Gwadar’s deep seaport will also be made functional this year and a modern airport will also be built there,” he added.
Mamnoon said the industrial zone of Kotri was playing an important role in national progress.
