ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the foreign ministry and envoys posted across the globe to promote a soft image of Pakistan around the world through proactive economic diplomacy.
PM Khan was addressing the concluding session of the two-day Envoys Conference on Economic Diplomacy on Friday evening in Islamabad.
“He (PM Khan) emphasized that concerted efforts should be undertaken to protect the interests of overseas Pakistanis, in particular working class Pakistanis,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement about the conference.
The Conference was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Commerce and the Board of Investment to deliberate ways to enhance foreign direct investment and trade, particularly exports.
Pakistan’s Ambassadors to Japan, Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, UAE, Turkey, UK, Spain, Italy and Germany made presentations at the Conference.
“Efforts should be intensified for exploring new markets for Pakistani products in Africa and Latin America,” Khan said while addressing the conference.
The PM recently constituted a new foreign affairs advisory council with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the chair to make foreign policy more vibrant and able to meet regional and international geo-strategic and economic challenges.
“In order to dispel the impression of our Foreign Policy being mostly security centric and less directed towards economic issues, experts having relevant experience in international economics have been made part of the advisory council,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The Advisory Council, through its deliberations and recommendations, will help take stock of Pakistan’s Foreign Policy and make recommendations for achievement of our Foreign Policy goals,” the statement added.
