 Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim and As-Salaamu Alaykum Pakistan. Welcome back to Corporate Governance and today we are going to take forward our discussion of the role of government and government as a stakeholder, as a regulator of the other stakeholders and especially the corporate institutions and the corporations in the context of corporate governance as a whole on a national level. Ladies and gentlemen, in the past we've been talking about what the government should be doing, what government regulations are about, what are the different type of regulations and how do they impact the industry and the corporate sector. Today, we are going to talk about how government can nurture their relationship with business and how they can interface with the corporate sector and with the industry in a better way. Now, when we are talking about the role of government, the first most important thing is that it prescribes the rules of the game. So, the government, just like mentioned in our last session, basically there are three pillars. One, the legislature, which promulgates the laws. Two, the executive, which tends to implement those laws. And thirdly, the judiciary, which interprets those laws. Now, the government as a whole is basically the prescriber of the rules of the game. They basically see that within the ambit of the culture, environment, circumstances, local, national and global players, they work out what are the best set of rules and regulations and laws forward. And that is the role of the government. It is also a major purchaser of the output of the business. So, for example, if nowadays we see that there is a boom in the construction sector in Pakistan, then it is because the government has set construction industry and housing sector as a priority. And they are providing easier loans, lesser interest and providing land and many other facilities due to which we see that a lot of business is being generated in the construction and the housing sector. It uses its contracting power to get the business to doing the things that it wants. So, just like I was mentioning that because it is focusing on the housing and construction sector, therefore now many companies are booming and many foreign investors are also coming in, banks are coming in. So, various stakeholders are now playing their role how they can move forward with the construction and the housing industry. It promotes and subsidize the business. So, yes, it is promoting the housing and construction industry and it does subsidize also different businesses. For example, it is giving some very good automobile policies whereby it is actually promoting electric vehicles and electric motorcycles. Many a times it subsidizes businesses. That basically means that it can subsidize wheat, it can subsidize other eatables, it can subsidize the production of electricity and many other subsidies also which would be in our daily lives. So, the role of the government is either to promote or to subsidize a particular business and that is very, very important. It is also, ladies and gentlemen, the architect of economic growth. It protects interests of the society against business exploitation. That is very important. Like in Pakistan, we have the monopoly control authority. We also have various other regulatory bodies like FBR, like State Bank of Pakistan, like the Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan. We also have the competition authority. We also have the corporate governance institutions. So, all of these different institutions and bodies tend to protect the society from exploitation by businesses and by very large businesses which we talked about in our previous section. It directly manages large areas of private business. So, again, yes, it basically engages with the large businesses and it is a national security protector also because just like we saw in Rekhodik when this gold contract was given then the government intervened because that is a strategic national resource and it could not have been just given just like that and it would have been detrimental to our national economy and also to the local landscape of Balochistan. So, similarly, in other areas too, it basically sees that where protection is required, where safeguards have to be given, like we see the Anglo coal project in Tharpakar. Over there also, the state is providing security to Anglo, which is a private entity. So, again, we see that wherever there are mutual interests, the government plays the role of a protector to the private industry so that they can do things in a better way. And that is something very, very important. The government should be proactive in the following areas, protection of stakeholders' interests through continuous monitoring and that is extremely important so that a large stakeholder does not take over and there has to be continuous monitoring so that the corporate sector remains aware that they cannot subjugate or they cannot sideline the laws, rules and regulations. Making rules of the game by devising different laws, just like I was mentioning earlier, it promulgates laws, like it has promulgated 149 labour laws to ensure that labour is not exploited. It has promulgated different accountability laws. It has promulgated different finance-related laws. It has promulgated different corporate laws. It has basically formed a securities exchange commission to ensure that there is corporate governance within the country so all of these things are taking place. And then it can penalize companies for not following rules so they can be penalty so that companies are also aware that they would face a loss if they don't do something. They can appoint regulators to regulate the certain sectors and that is also very important, just like I have mentioned so many. A government should portray itself corruption-free so that companies can follow its worthy example. So again what we see is that the government has to be a role model. The government has to show that there is transparency, there is meritocracy, there is accountability, that there is self-discipline, that there is no nepotism, no favouritism, no discrimination, no exploitation. So all of these things have to be ensured by the government so that it can be followed by different corporate institutions. Transparency and accountability should be the key principles for any company and for any government. The removal of the license system for several industries is also required because to licensing you basically tend to impede business, you control business and free flow of business does not play. There is no free competition because whoever gets the license tends to have an advantage over the others who do not have a license. So all of these things are extremely important and licensing business should actually be stopped by the government. More autonomy should be granted to the public sector enterprises so that they can compete with the private sector enterprises and become self-sustainable and also generate profits, windfall profits actually for the government because these are usually standalone institutions. Look at the steel mills in Karachi. Well, yeah, for a long time PIA was alone. Look at Pakistan Railways. Look at Wabda. Look at NTSC, National Transmission Company. So look at the different escows, that means the electric supply companies, they're all government-owned but they have to become more efficient, more effective, more modern, more transparent, more technology-prone, whereby they can compete and become a benchmark for other companies to follow. The Thana culture has to be reduced because unfortunately the police have unwitted, unbridled powers and they can exploit them. And many a times they can also embarrass the industry or create problems for the industry so that Thana culture and Thana mafia has also to be reduced drastically and controlled through laws, through regulations and through collaborative liaison committees. So those committees should comprise of civil society, of the corporate sector and of the government and they should basically be controlling and ensuring that proper policing is being done and the police is there to protect and ensure the freedom and rights and liberties of the individuals and also of the industry rather than to create suffocation and exploitation. There should be a greater degree of competition industries and that is also extremely important that the government has to promote that competition. So ladies and gentlemen, based upon these few points that I was discussing, you can see that the government plays a very major role. It should be proactive, it should be effective, it should be efficient, it should be technology-prone, it should be forward-looking. It should be able to empathize with the corporate sector, it should be able to negate the negative forces so that the economy becomes more conducive towards businesses. The economy can attract more foreign direct investment FDI and the economy can create more jobs, especially for the youth bulge of 60% plus of Pakistan. So all of these things are very important and government is a role model and government is a facilitator to the private sector. Thank you so much.