Shaukat Aziz was speaking at a dinner reception hosted in his honour by Hong Kong-Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Chairman Vincent Cheng at its headquarters for Asia here on Tuesday night before his departure for Pakistan.

The Prime Minister said there had been tremendous growth in the banking sector in Pakistan and now over 50 percent banking was being operated by leading foreign banks.

Appreciating the operation of HSBC in Pakistan, the Prime Minister said there should be more branches of this leading bank to take full potential of the available opportunities in the banking sector. He said Pakistan had allowed all the foreign banks to work freely without any restriction or condition, as their operation was no threat to the sovereignty and dignity of the country.

The Prime Minister said the main goal of the government was to provide incentives to the investors in all the sectors and the government had been doing it without any discrimination.

Referring to achievements in the economic sector, the Prime Minister said due to liberal, transparent and consistent economic policies, the growth rate in this sector remained seven to eight percent in the last couple of years, and expressed the hope that it would be over seven percent during the current fiscal year.

 
He said the foreign investment would be over six billion dollars by the end of the current fiscal year, which would be a record in Pakistan's history.


He asked the foreign investors, particularly the bankers, to come to Pakistan to personally witness the prospects of investment in different sectors.