Lahore, December 14, 2016 (PPI-OT): The All Pakistan Business Forum president Ibrahim Qureshi has said the private sector can play role in investment and job creation to achieve the required 7% GDP growth rate in the country, as the private sector knows the art of making markets work, managing risks and fostering competitiveness and innovation.

The public-private partnerships is critical for inclusive and sustainable economic growth, he said and added the implementation of policies is a key challenge in the country.

Only the private sector can drive long-term value creation for their shareholders and stakeholders by developing business models, systems, processes and production chains that manage the economic, social and environmental dimensions in a balanced manner, Ibrahim Qureshi added.

He said there is a need to introduce reforms in the tax system and new sectors should be brought under tax net. He said smuggling, under invoicing and misdeclaration are big challenges for the local industry.

Terming the present tax system of the Federal Board of Revenue as a big challenge for existing and new businesses, he suggested that the taxpayers need to be honoured with a view to improve revenue collection.

APBF president suggested that the FBR must cautiously exercise enforcement powers against the taxpayers, who are regularly contributing revenue to the national kitty. FBR’s field formations should avoid exercising powers to issue notices, sealing of business premises and attachment of bank accounts on groundless basis.

He said that if enforcement powers are exercised without fulfilment of legal formalities, it would send a negative message to the existing investors as well as discourage the new businesses in all over the country.

What an investor needs is secure environment to achieve his goal and be able to contribute to the economy of the country, which could only be possible if the concerned departments extend their support and cooperation, he added.

Ibrahim Qureshi said the government has achieved some macroeconomic targets during last three years; however, declining exports and widening trade deficit still constitute a big challenge that should be focused by the policymakers.

He said that the rising oil prices in the international market and declining exports are negative signs for the country’s current account balance. However, he was optimistic about China Pakistan Economic Corridor saying the country’s economy is bound to grow faster with the completion of the projects of over $46 billion Chinese investment in Pakistan.

He suggested that the government should introduce reforms especially in the tax system and other sectors should be brought under tax net to achieve 7% growth rate of GDP that is essential of economic stability.

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The National History and Literary Heritage Division signed an MoU with the Inter Art Channel, Republic of Korea to organize an exhibition of Gandhara artefacts and sculptures from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in two cities of Republic of Korea for a period of six months starting from March next year.

The Memorandum was signed by Secretary, National History and Literary Heritage Division, Mr. Mohsin S. Haqqani and President of the Inter Art Channel, Republic of Korea, Mr. Yangsoo Kim, in the presence of Director General (Policy Planning and Public Diplomacy), Mr. Rahim Hayat Qureshi and Director General (EAP), Mr. Javed Jalil Khattak, from Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Joint Secretary (Heritage), Mr. Mashood Ahmad Mirza, Director (Archeology and Museum Department), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Dr. Abdul Samad and Secretary of Gandhara Art & Culture Association, Islamabad, Dr. Esther Park were also present during the event.

The MoU would help strengthen the existing excellent relations between Pakistan and Republic of Korea by opening of a Highway of cultural cooperation between them. Through the exhibition not only the rich Buddhist archaeological treasure of Pakistan would be displayed in Republic of Korea but it would also project the soft image of Pakistan which would help draw religious tourists to Pakistan.

The Gandhara civilization, whose core region was located around the city of Peshawar in North-West Pakistan, was not only the centre of spiritual influence but also the cradle of the world famous Gandhara culture, art and learning. This ancient source of the region's culture has created an empathy between Pakistan and other countries of Central, South and East Asia which needs to be strengthened.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as part of its Public Diplomacy initiatives aimed at promoting Pakistani culture abroad, has undertaken efforts to organize with the assistance of our Missions Abroad a series of Ancient Pakistan Exhibitions. The Ministry endeavours to arrange such public diplomacy events in order to project Pakistan's culture, heritage and ethos both at home and abroad.

Source: Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage

DIDYMOTEICHO, GREECE � This time of year, the Evros River runs broad and icy, its banks muddy and remote. It's a formidable sight for migrants reaching Turkey's land border with Greece, but not formidable enough to stop people who have already come so far in their bid to make it to a new life in Europe.

It was horribly cold, said Kevin Mohamadi, 37, an Iranian who said he crossed the river after paying smugglers. We were a group of 16, including Afghan families with four children each, and crossed in two boatloads. Then we had to walk through forests for four hours, to avoid being caught.

A year after the uncontrolled influx of more than 1 million refugees and economic migrants to debt-hobbled Greece, this border region is again seeing rising flows of migrants. It's largely because of a legal loophole: restrictions imposed in March to curb new arrivals by sea in the Greek islands don't apply to the land border.

That means that anyone entering here is far ahead of island arrivals in the queue for refugee relocation to other European countries, and those who do not qualify for asylum could be spared deportation that they would otherwise face under the deal between the European Union and Turkey.

Also, despite the river crossing, the discomfort and danger pales when compared with the sea journey to the islands.

The refugees usually cross in boats, said Panagiotis Ageladarakis, mayor of the border village of Amorio, about 1.5 kilometers (just under a mile) from the river. At its widest the river is about 150 meters across, but there are narrower points, and Turks ferry them over. ... Then they walk to our villages. It's a regular sight.

Statistics incomplete

Figures on arrivals here are far from complete. The only statistics released are of people who are caught with the smugglers they pay to ferry them over the Evros, which runs along most of the 180-kilometer (110-mile) border. There is no information on migrants who make it across without the help of smugglers, nor for those who are smuggled successfully across and taken further into Greece or elsewhere in Europe.

But even the few numbers that do exist show a rapid upward trend. About 655 people, largely Syrians, were arrested with 33 smugglers in October, double the figure for September.

A police official also told The Associated Press that Greek authorities are deterring about 4,000 people a month from coming over by driving patrol cars to the Greek side of the river when they see a group of migrants about to cross, or calling Turkish officials to pick them up. That's nearly three times the number seen in an average summer month, even though the crossing is much easier then because low water levels make it possible to wade across the river.

Migrants seeking to be included in EU plans to relocate them to other European Union countries often immediately hand themselves over to police and start their asylum application process. Ageladarakis said they usually arrive early in the mornings.

They come here to the coffee shop and ask us to call the police, he said.

Some keep going north

Others, though, aim to go much further. Police say they pay smuggling gangs 2,000-2,200 euros ($2,100-$2,300) each to be taken over the river and then driven in small trucks or cars to the northern city of Thessaloniki, or the capital, Athens, 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) to the southwest. Once there, they can apply for relocation, or pay to be spirited through the sealed Balkan borders, or for a forged passport and a plane ticket to anywhere in Europe.

People who cross on their own seek temporary shelter. Their transit is marked in a disused farm warehouse close to the railway station in the town of Didymoteicho, where flaking brick walls are blackened by fires lit to cheat sub-zero temperatures, and discarded clothing, soiled diapers, worn-out shoes and toothbrushes litter the floor.

Paschalis Syritoudis, police chief in the nearby town of Orestiada, said people from Syria, Iraq, Eritrea, Somalia or Myanmar are automatically treated as refugees, and Syrians and Iraqis get documents that allow them to join the lengthy relocation process.

All other migrants are arrested and detained ... and if they don't request asylum the deportation procedure starts.

After six months, freedom

But maximum detention is six months, after which if the migrants haven't been deported � and countries such as Pakistan routinely block deportation requests � they are freed.

The figures for people passing through here are still low compared with those using the island route. Around 170,000 people have used that so far this year, but the vast majority before the Aegean island restrictions kicked in.

Under the March EU-Turkey deal, which, combined with Balkan border closures, slowed the migratory influx to a trickle, migrants arriving on the islands must be deported back to Turkey, even if they are bona fide refugees. To stay in Greece, they must prove not only that they merit asylum, but that there is a good reason for their not being granted asylum in Turkey.

Conditions for those who made it to the island camps before March are dismal because of severe overcrowding, delays in the asylum process and tension among ethnic groups or with Greeks, often reliant on tourism and angry at their islands being turned into open prisons.

It's true that migratory pressure since August has been higher than in the same months last year, police chief Syritoudis said. But there is no indication that the overall flow is turning toward the Evros area.

Source: Voice of America