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WASHINGTON
(April 12 2005): 'Five years of hard work by the top
Pakistani leadership and placement of a good management
team is starting to pay fast dividends,' said a noted
Pakistani American businessman Pervez Lodhie. Talking
to APP on Sunday, he expressed satisfaction over the
progress of Pakistan's economy, and referred to all key
economic and fundamental indicators, showing that the
goals were being achieved faster than set time limits. "However",
he said, "there is still a lot of work to be done
in Pakistan; all is not perfect. Fifty years of the country's
neglect and gross miss-management by a few cannot be
fully fixed in five years except by some magic.
"Other critical problems that need to be addressed include law and order,
corruption, healthcare, and education.
"The Transparency International shows that corruption index went up 20 percent
in 2004 after declining for four years. This may be due to reduced government
focus on corruption. This sudden increase in corruption index should be immediately
analysed, and appropriate, corrective actions should be taken," said Pervez
Lodhie.
Lodhie was the Corporate Board member of the US-Pakistan Business Council
(USPBC) with a 15-member high-level US business delegation that recently
visited Islamabad. The delegation included representatives of major companies
along with Pak-American businessmen.
Lodhie said: "The only foreign investors clearly missing from this
centre of the region that will be the highest growth region of the world
are investors from the United States of America.
"The Middle Eastern, European and South Asian companies and investor groups
are quickly grabbing the major government entities being privatised in Pakistan," he
said.
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