The government desired total involvement of the private sector in business activities, he said, while speaking at the inaugural session of "The national investment conference 2005: emerging investment opportunities in Pakistan" under the aegis of Karachi Branch Council (KBC) of the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP).
The minister said the government's privatisation programme was for the masses as was evident from the large-scale participation of people in share business in the country's stock markets.
"The concept of share business, which was considered a game of only rich and affluent, has been done away with and persons of average means are now participating in the activities of stock exchanges," he said.
The participants, which was earlier hardly 77,000, now run in much larger number and hopefully their participation would exceed one million mark in initial public offering (IPOs) of Kot Addu Power Company (Kapco), he said.
He said the privatisation programme not only took the number of people to the higher level, but also increased the value of shares to the tune of Rs 45 billion, which was a revolution in the country's share business history.
The minister recalled that there was a time when the investors remained away from investment in the country owing to red-tapism, legal system, image problem, etc., but now the trend had reversed as more and more investment was coming in different sectors.
The investment figures in the first seven months of the current fiscal year were over 50 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last year, he said.
Recounting the policy, facilitation and marketing as the key areas for investment, the minister said policies had been corrected as now the private sector was being encouraged to run the entities.
The problem of facilitation for new and middle investors was being removed, as the top hierarchy of the government was available for facilitation purpose, he said.
On the marketing aspect, the minister said there used to be an image problem, which was now changing, as the image of neighbouring country was being reshaped, and added booming reconstruction in Afghanistan, confidence-building steps between Pakistan and India were sending positive signals to investors.
He conceded that poverty and unemployment were the legitimate concern despite growth of economy and asserted those could be tackled only with further economic growth.
The multiplied poverty and unemployment problem was the outcome of slow economic growth, which stood around three percent in the 90s, he said, adding now it crossed 6.4 percent and hopefully would exceed seven percent that year.
About the privatisation of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), the minister said it was a strategic sale through share offering aimed at improving its performance and change in the management. "The government's share might be offered to the public only if it improved in the years to come," he added.
Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) managing-director Moin Fudda, in his presentation, said the KSE was the best performing stock market in Asia in terms of turnover and it gained 33 percent increase in points from Jan 1 to Feb 25.
ICMAP vice-president Qaisar Mufti stressed that trickle-down effect of the investment should be visible to have a positive impact on the common man.
ICMAP KBC president Javed Mansha also spoke on the occasion.