Prime Minister Imran Khan and Saudi King and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Salman bin Abdulaziz on Tuesday discussed the bilateral issues, regional and international situation.
During a meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, both leaders expressed their desire to further strengthen the bilateral cooperation. They also discussed issues of mutual interest, trade, investment and economic ties.
Issues of Pakistani workforce and labourers were also discussed and the Saudi King directed Saudi ministry concerned to immediately resolve those issues.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Minister for Finance Asad Umar, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, Minister of State/Chairman Board of Investment Haroon Sharif, advisor on commerce Abdul Razak Dawood and Pakistan’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia Khan Hisham bin Siddique was also present during the meeting.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Imran Khan said the PTI government has inherited a huge burden of current account and fiscal deficits and we are working on different fronts to get out of this financial crunch.
He was speaking during question answer session at the three-day Future Investment Initiative Conference which began in Riyadh on Tuesday.
The PM said, "Government is approaching the IMF and the friendly countries to seek loans to plug this financial gap."
He said, "Government is also endeavoring to reform our institutions to check the menace of corruption in mega development projects and white collar crimes."
"Government is also going to provide enabling environment for doing business in Pakistan to attract the foreign investors particularly the overseas Pakistanis to invest in various projects in the country," PM dded.
The Prime Minister Imran said the government will provide incentives to overseas Pakistanis to send their remittances through banking channels to enhance our foreign exchange reserves and check money laundering.
To a question, Imran Khan said his government is focusing on creating jobs for our youth who form the one hundred million population of our country to harness their talent.
He said for this purpose an ambitious plan of constructing five million houses has already been launched to provide affordable shelter to the poor segments of the society.
Replying to a question about Pak China relations and the CPEC, he said Pakistan admires the Chinese leadership's measures to bring out seven hundred million population out of poverty and convicting over four hundred corrupt elements to purge their society of corruption and crimes.
CPEC is a flagship project under Belt and Road initiative of President Xi Jinping and it would help the entire landscape in the region through greater connectivity and development projects, he said.
The CPEC would open up the road and sea routes for Pakistan through Gwadar, Central Asia and the Middle East, he further added.
Imran Khan said Pakistan is going to set up special economic zones along the CPEC routes to generate economic activity and employment for our people.
The premier particularly highlighted the investment opportunities in Pakistan in the minerals including coal, copper, zinc, oil and gas and religious tourism.
Responding to a question about terrorism, Prime Minister Imran Khan said, "Pakistan has achieved great successes in the fight against terrorism due to unprecedented sacrifices in human and material."
He said that, "Pakistan needs a lasting peace and stability to provide an enabling environment to the local and foreign investors in different projects in the country."
He said we also want peace with all our neighbors particularly India and Afghanistan for regional peace and stability.
"Peace with India would help the two countries to divert their resources towards human development instead of indulging in an arms race," PM said.
He said similarly peace in Afghanistan would help Pakistan to have an easy access to the Central Asian States for bilateral economic and trade activities.
