Pakistan looking for trade and market access, not international aid: Zardari
By ANIThursday, February 24, 2011
TOKYO - Pakistan is not looking for aid, instead it is looking for trade and market access to “turn around” its shattered economy, President Asif Ali Zardari has said.
“Our people are great entrepreneurs and if they are given market access they will be able to turn around the nation’s economy on their own,” the Daily Times quoted Zardari, as saying.
He made these comments while addressing the members of the Japan-Pakistan Friendship League at a luncheon meeting hosted by League President Seishiro Etoh, who is also the vice speaker of the Japan’s Lower House.
Zardari pointed out that 65 percent of Pakistan’s population comprised of youth, who were looking for jobs and opportunities, that had however been destroyed by the ongoing war on terror.
A jobless and idle youngster was likely to join the ranks of extremists unless he was provided with opportunities that gave him hope for the future, he added.
Giving this reason, the president said that he was asking the world to help Pakistan recover from its economic crunch through opportunities for greater trade and not just aid.
He also invited the members of Japan’s Parliamentary League to Pakistan to see for themselves the devastation caused by the war against terrorism and that how Pakistan was trying to cope with it.
The Japan-Pakistan Parliamentary Friendship League had been established in September 1975 with the objective of promoting bilateral relations between both nations through the exchange of parliamentarians. (ANI)
