"We have identified five potential areas for investment. First, agriculture. I don't necessarily mean AI-led agriculture alone, but the use of today's technology and modern machinery, be it combine harvesters and other equipment to enhance our per-acre yield, improve efficiency, achieve higher production and economize our costs by saving every last grain. So this is where Pakistan has its biggest potential. Secondly, mines and minerals. This is an area where God Almighty has blessed Pakistan with enormous resources.
Third, IT and AI-led initiatives. Our population is young, and we are doing our best to empower them through vocational and skills training. This can be utilized in our discussion in terms of productive employment and production. Fourth, because of the current crisis, certain lessons have to be drawn. Pakistan, as luck would have it, offers both security and safety for energy reserves; oil, petrol, gas, everything. And finally, investment in ports and shipping. So these are the five areas, I would like to propose as an opening gambit for our discussion here today.
Privatization is another very important area. As I speak, PIA has now been privatized. We have also privatized a bank. We are speedily processing the privatization of our power distribution companies in various provinces. Similarly, many other areas of mutual interest are being offered to the private sector, because the government's business is to act as a catalyst to support the private sector, not to become the private sector."
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif's remarks during his meeting with delegations of the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU) and the US-Pakistan Business Council (USPBC)