LAHORE Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said the Pakistan government will not allow any country to exploit its water resources at any cost. Addressing the seventh LCCI Achievement Awards 2011, the PM said Pakistan had raised water dispute with India at every international forum. He said the government was paying Rs25 billion to the independent power producers (IPPs) for resolving energy crisis in the country. The PPP government wanted to minimise the duration of power outages in its tenure and was trying its best to resolve the issue at the earliest, he added. The PM said the payment would enable the power producers to maximise the power generation capacity and reduce the durations of power outages, especially during the Eid holidays. The prime minister said a committee had been set up to immediately resolve the issue of circular debt. He said the committee would submit its recommendations to the cabinet next month. Talking about the economy, he said for the first time in the history, Pakistan crossed the export level of $25 billion. He said the countrys forex reserves touched $18.20 billion while the remittances from the Pakistanis abroad also touched the all-time high-level of $12 billion. He said in July the remittances stood at $1.1 billion, showing an increase of 35 per cent as compared to the last year. We have made progress despite serious internal and external challenges and we can say that our economy is yet stable despite lot of challenges, he said. Regarding the issue of target killing in Karachi, the PM said stability in Karachi was a must for strengthening the countrys economy which would lead to the overall political stability of the country. He said he would be visiting Karachi on Sunday (today) to attend a high-level meeting with a view to restore peace. He said he was pursuing the policy of reconciliation to promote political and economic stability in the country. The prime minister said his govt had taken up the water issue with India during different meetings. He also congratulated the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on organising the seventh LCCI Achievement Awards 2011, and inviting him for the fourth time consecutively as a chief guest. Earlier, the prime minister presented awards to the recipients of various categories. He congratulated all the winners of achievement awards and said he was confident that they would increase their performance in future. The LCCI president, Shahzad Ali Malik, while congratulating the prime minister on exceeding the export target stressed the need for consistency in export-related policies so that it could be enhanced further. He said the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry was planning to establish center for export competitiveness with an objective to give awareness to exporters about the latest export enhancement methodologies. He said today the country was facing enormous challenges of varied nature. Without oversimplifying the complex nature of these problems, economic prosperity and development holds the answer to many of our problems today. He said the shortage of energy was Pakistans first problem, impeding our industrial, economic and social growth. Malik also spoke on the issues of acute energy shortage, discrimination with Punjab in gas supply, deteriorating law and order situation, high markup rate and public sector enterprises. He said energy was the engine of growth and the government had to ensure availability of cheap energy for the industrial sector. He said establishment of a state-of-the-art Sheikhupura Dry Port by the LCCI would facilitate the importers and exporters who were earning much needed foreign exchange for the country. He said the dairy and livestock sector had lot of potential. He said the government should improve the infrastructure in this regard so that the dairy and livestock sector could play its due role to increase the exports. He said promotion of biotechnology was the need of the hour. He informed the participants that the LCCI was constructing 150 houses for the flood affectees in district Leyyah. Possession of 50 houses was given to the flood affectees while other 100 houses would be completed soon.