Musharraf Vows to Court Investors to Quicken Growth (Update1)

[struggle4progress]

Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said he will open the nation's economy to more overseas investors and boost the pace of growth, seeking to continue a stock market rally that has quintupled the country's benchmark index in the past three years.

Musharraf, speaking in a Bloomberg Television interview late today from the Pakistani capital Islamabad, said he would be ``dismayed'' if gross domestic product growth didn't touch 8 percent in the ``coming'' years, compared with about 6.3 percent in 2004. He pledged to cut the rate of inflation in half to 4 percent.

Musharraf's government renewed access to foreign investment by aligning itself with U.S. President George W. Bush to fight terrorism after the attacks of 2001. In the three prior years, his country had been isolated by economic sanctions following his military takeover in 1999.

``My financial advisers are confident and therefore I am very confident,'' the 61-year-old Musharraf said. ``There are 600 to 700 foreign investors in Pakistan. Each one of them is making a profit of 20 percent to 50 percent on their investment. Anyone would like to come to Pakistan.'' <snip>

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=a5v_H5llwqok&refer=asia


The Ownership Society -- woirking hand-in-hand with dictators around the world

[varun]

1. Who would want to invest

in a country where terrorists kill Americans and Europeans frequently? Where Journalists are captured and beheaded?

BTW, the 6.3% growth Musharraf is touting is the result of almost $12 billion that USA has poured into Pakistan since 9/11.