ISLAMABAD - Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday said that economic diplomacy was at the core of Pakistan’s foreign policy. 

The Foreign Minister inaugurated Pakistan’s country presentation at the virtual Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Investment Fair 2021, organised by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in New York. 

In his video address to a global audience of private sector investors, businesses, members of the Global Investors for Sustainable Development (GISD) alliance, multilateral and bilateral development actors, governments, UN agencies and other stakeholders, the Foreign Minister underscored that SDGs remain one of the top national priorities of Pakistan, and the government’s post-COVID-19 recovery response and climate-resilience solutions were in line with the UN Agenda 2030 of Sustainable Development. 

Qureshi underscored that Economic Diplomacy was now at the core of Pakistan’s foreign policy, corresponding to the leadership’s vision of an economically secure Pakistan with a shift in emphasis towards geo-economics.  

He also noted that Pakistan was an emerging market with great opportunities for investments in its growing economy. Highlighting the country’s potential, the Foreign Minister stressed that Pakistan offered pivotal geo-economic location, regional connectivity, a huge consumer market with an expanding middle class, and a large segment of skilled, vibrant and youthful population to its valued investors.  

In addition to highlighting the importance of the private sector for achieving SDGs, the Foreign Minister emphasised that Pakistan’s continued impressive progress on the Ease-of-Doing Business rankings was a reflection of the growing confidence of investors in the recent policies of the government. 

The SDGs Investment Fair is an annual platform with the goal of facilitating new partnership opportunities to generate regional and global investments in social impact projects of developing countries.  

This year’s edition has been organised in a virtual format on the sidelines of the Forum on Financing for Development that is being held under Pakistan’s Presidency of the UN Economic and Social Council.  

In collaboration with the UN Development Programme, Pakistan presented a portfolio of investment-ready sustainable development projects at the Fair worth $2 billion, primarily in the sectors of climate change, infrastructure, and information technology, to attract international private sector investments from around the globe.