 Good evening to this press conference from the 48th annual meeting here in Davos We're very pleased to welcome you here this evening on the evening of the third day of this annual meeting already And we're particularly pleased and honored to be joined by the Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahid Khakan Abassi and he's bringing with him a very senior delegation of cabinet ministers and a member of the National Assembly to my in addition to the Prime Minister, we're joined by my immediate left by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, Mr Hwaja Muhammad Asif, I think I hope I pronounced this correctly To the left of the Prime Minister, we're joined by Sayyira Afzal Tarar the Minister for National Health Services Regulations and Coordination of Pakistan Next to her. We're pleased to be joined by Anusha Raman Khan the Minister of State for information technology and telecommunications welcome We're also joined by Mariam Aurangzeb the Minister of State for information broadcasting and national heritage and Last but definitely not least. We're joined by Shahzad Khwaja a Member of the National Assembly as mentioned. Thank you very much for being here in the room with us Thank you very much for watching whether you're watching on television on our website on Facebook or periscope. You're very welcome Prime Minister without further ado, we'd like to hand the word over to you and hear from you Thoughts and your perspective on the theme of the meeting creating a shared future in a fractured world and share with the members of The media also an update from Pakistan, please Thank you very much. Mr. Schmidt our decision to attend The WF and annual meeting was motivated by this year's theme shared future in a fractured world This theme rings true for all our initiatives whether peace and security economic social or international In Pakistan We are carving out a shared future and leaving no one behind while faced with fractures internally and externally Pakistan is at the cusp of making history by making a peaceful transition while completing a decade of successive democracy We have a strong narrative and there is no better platform than the World Economic Forum to showcase the role Pakistan will be playing in connecting people and regions through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which is today the visible part of the Belt and Road initiative The WF has facilitated us to project our emerging economy Forging strategic alliances and social empowerment initiatives in line with sustainable development goals during the WF we engaged with business leaders from the financial telecom energy automotive technology and Health care sectors this forum allowed us to project Pakistan's true potential and have productive discussions We are very confident that these engagements will help us generate billions of dollars of business potential in Pakistan. Thank you Thank You Prime Minister We will now have some time for questions from the audience if you would kindly indicate If you have a question by raising your hand, we have a microphone here for the sake of our online audience, please Yes The lady in the middle if you could get the microphone over there if you could state your name and organization, please No, please use the other one. So All our audience can hear your question. Thank you Okay, thank you minutes, sorry. Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. I'm from China Central Television My question is about, you know that the theme of this year's Davos is to create a shared future In a fractured world, which is quite similar to Mr. President Xi Jinping has made last year here and My question is about what is your understanding of a shared future? And would you like to comment on China's effort to create a shared future? Thank you Thank you very much. We have highlighted China's President Xi's vision at every forum here and what we have said is very clearly that China has taken the historical linkages transpose them onto the current fractures and Created linkages for the future. I think this is The the BRI initiative is something that will benefit the region and the world at large for Decades and and and probably millions to come Thank you very much. Would any other panelists like to add to that? Well, the initiative the Chinese initiative especially in a religion region, which is which is politically and otherwise fractured is something which shows or Manifests China's commitment to really strive for a shared future Where as elsewhere in Middle East and Some of other regions on the globe There is absolutely no effort for for Building of a shared future and the world remains fractured fractured economically poverty lack of connectivity and the conflict zones especially the conflict areas where The world is You know, especially the refugee crisis and some of the issues which are very close to To Pakistan also and other countries of our region Like Palestine like Kashmir like the Rohingya's so these are The reasons or these are the causes of a fractured world which is not being covered or which is not being Which is really hampering the sharing of The common future Thank you Thank you very much, and we have a question from the gentleman on the left the microphone is on its way Thank you Mr. Prime Minister appropriately first a question from the Chinese and now a question from the Americans And I guess it's in the nature of Pakistan its geography that you're always pulled in different directions I suppose my question is do you feel the warmth of friendship more from the East or more from the West and How so do you balance your relationship with America? With your relationship with the Chinese and other partners in your region Thank you very much if you could also for the sake of our online audience state your name and It's Kier Simmons from NBC News. Thank you very much We are a country where warm winds blow both from the East and the West and they've been Blowing for the last 70 years So we hope that the warm winds will continue to blow. We have a long relationship with China and we have a long relationship with the US and Both relations are important to us so That is the way we view these relationships and we want to continue those relationships the Relationship with China has further strengthened over time especially with the CPAC and the BRI of which Pakistan is a large part. So and it's open to Other countries in the region who will greatly benefit from the CPAC and the BRI So we are not only providing connectivity for Pakistan and China reporting connectivity for the region also Thank you very much. Please by all means Well as the Prime Minister said that these two relationships are as old as our country We do not maintain relationship Relationships like for instance our relationship with China is not at the expense of US or our relationship with US is Not at the expense of Chinese Chinese relationship and we would like our friends to view Their relationship with us with Pakistan as an independent relationship and not through the prism of a third country I'm referring to our relationship with the United States They have recently or since last few years viewing their relationship with us through the prism of Afghanistan. Thank you Thank you very much. So we had questions about China about the US Let's hear a little bit more about Pakistan itself actually a prime minister in your opening remarks You also mentioned energy. You mentioned innovation technology Maybe you and members of the cabinet would like to share some perspective on that And what's the outlook for Pakistan in these areas, please? Do you want to share something on the IT? How we are how it's changing lives how it's connecting People thank you Prime Minister As as far as the IT is concerned Pakistan has come from less than three percent of broadband connectivity in 2013 crossing 37 percent Of the population which is using mobile phones connected with now with 3g and the Prime Minister has given the vision to Have the broadband like air Which means that now that we are 80 percent in the coverage area We will be connecting hundred percent of the unconnected territories so We've spent something like four hundred million dollars in the last four years on Connecting the unconnected in the far flung areas of the country and once infrastructure is complete by December 2018 The supply side once having dealt being dealt with we are now also focusing on the demand side of the technology Which is providing training in digital skills, which is we are now training one million young population with digital skills Launching the e-commerce platform the full-value chain and bringing about 50,000 artisans online The ICT for girls program teaching girls how to do coding and cloud computing at this point in time 146,000 girls in Islamabad and in the Bethel malls women empowerment centers are on the learning Trajectory learning how to do coding in cloud computing In partnership with my Microsoft at the same time The Ministry of IT and other species of the Prime Minister of Pakistan is the minister in charge are Have launched incubation centers providing 100,000 square feet of space for startups Three incubation centers are already launched and two are in the making in maybe launching those start-up incubation centers And the children are taking the technology innovation to the world through these platforms So we believe that Technology is the way forward the use of technology on the demand side is something that we are now emphasizing on We feel that these are the ways and means of giving employment opportunities to young children We are number react number fourth in freelancing and we aspire to become number one So the digital skill programs that we have launched is actually going towards taking Pakistan as number one in freelancing so all these projects with setting up of the Different types of activities on the demand side technology parks giving additional Attention to the IT sector the Pakistan software exports have increased from $300 million in 2013 under the PMLN governance has gone up to 3.3 billion dollars in the last four years So we have actually got a hundred percent increase in the software exports targeting around 10 billion dollars by 2020 so these initiatives are all on the trajectory Pakistan is a it's a huge market for We produce about 20,000 young IT professionals every year We are looking at bridging the industry academia gap by providing them additional training. We are looking at more Human resource capital deployed for the world for the software export. So Pakistan is a good market To look into our average dollar rate for hours about $15 whereas the world is offering at $30 So these are the things that makes Pakistan a very attractive market for all of you to do business with us Thank you social sectors and especially in the health care. We've taken some major initiatives which target the provision of quality health care for the poorest the poor so Mrs. Sara Tarrar the health Christopher health will explain that Thank You Prime Minister. I think like any other developing country the health indicators of Pakistan are not as encouraging and I always say that Unfortunately in developing countries the Ministry of Health used to be and are still donor driven So the first step which the present government has taken is that we introduce the largest social sector program in health sector That is Prime Minister National Health Programme It is covering almost millions of family and the data which we have collected that is from abyss Which is we have done through a poverty survey and it is for the people who earn less than $2 a day and through this Program, you know, you won't believe that this is a pro women program The first lot which you get in this program was 70% of the women. So this increased our Scaled birth this increased our primary health coverage and I think health is a devolved subject in Pakistan There was a constitution amendment of and after that, but this program really is a game-changer Our routine immunization that was another challenge which Pakistan was facing and we are one of the biggest recipient of Gavi also but this time Gavi Recalled by a Gavi board to present our case in front of other beneficiaries and now our routine immunization it exceeds from 50% to 80% and with little intervention We provide Android phone to our vaccinated and through mechanism which we develop I think in a country like Pakistan if we improve governance and Monitoring and make people accountable for what they do we can do a major shift another thing You know that we are suffering unfortunately from beer among those countries still from polio But what we have done in last four years is remarkable All our international partners and even the IMB who which is the highest forum appreciated Pakistan and now we are Have only eight case Our major challenge in polio eradication is cross border virus coming from Afghanistan and from Pakistan going to Afghanistan So now we have improved our permanent transit points and we have vaccinated Almost all the IDPs and I think the way we are moving forward You won't believe that this time in web at least five CEOs of different Private sector they want to invest in Pakistan in infrastructure and logistic management in Equipment, and I think you will feel the difference in another few years. Thank you. Thank you minister So there's reason for optimism there Do we have other questions from the floor at this point? In which case I would like to follow up with another question Pakistan is a young country in the sense that is a very young population The forum works with the global shapers our community of under 30 years old We have very good engagement from Pakistan as well What's the message you're taking from this annual meeting back to Pakistan especially to young people in your country? I think you can take that question. Yeah, I think on the government's agenda the most important thing is jobs and you know while having a young population is a blessing in many cases we as the government are responsible for providing them jobs and This administration has a single-minded focus on creating that so even at Weff We want young people to know that the government is here finding partnerships that will create large-scale employment We also want to encourage young people We want to encourage them to participate in the shapers as YGLs as Other communities of the Weff and many other communities around the world to globalize ourselves So I think those are the two messages I would I would give to young people Thank you very much Do we have any other questions from the floor? No, not at this point Do you want to add to the Aspect all I would say is that in this world of disruptive technologies Technology is the tool to take forward and provide the employment opportunities to the youth And that's what we are very focused on and I would like to just Bring it out in the focus that we are adding 1 million 3g 4g customers every month And it's a huge figure sometimes I think a population of the country is added to the 3g 4g network every every month in Pakistan and Large part of it is a young population and yet they're using this technology as an enablement for Earning a bread from home. So the freelancing is one of the key things that our government is focusing and providing them an Opportunity to earn using technology is one of the key drivers Focus of our government as well and which is actually Providing broadband connectivity in every inch of Pakistan to bring in financial inclusion and also provide job opportunities for people where Even roads don't exist yesterday. So there's a massive effort underway to provide that Thank You Prime Minister. Yes, please Well, I'm Maria Moring say but I would just like to briefly add to the already Explained narrative from Pakistan that from the perspective of social empowerment and social indicators In line with sustainable development goals as 60% of the youth of the country Is under the age of 35 and we see youth as means of implementation of Sustainable development goals and also the there's a priority from the government to engage youth into these Inclusive development that we are implementing in Pakistan at the moment and also Pakistan has been fighting War on terror for past 35 years and we have seen successes in last four years. So there's also a challenge for the youth in the country Which is confronted with the war? perception war also and how we are actually Reshaping the landscape and the perception about Pakistan across the world and how we're using Media for that matter and also by regaining and reviving our Indigenous narrative and the original narrative by engaging youth into the broadcast industry into media industry and also into Film industry of Pakistan Pakistan government of Pakistan will be announcing the first film policy to engage youth Into the entertainment and broadcast industry and use them as tools to change the image of Pakistan across the globe Thank you very much Your health minister already mentioned some some company names But I'd like like to ask the question a broader sense because we have 1500 business leaders here And I was what's your message as Prime Minister of Pakistan to these business leaders here in Davos and beyond the message is very simple Pakistan is open for business Pakistan is a huge market. It's a growing market. We have a six percent growth rate and the Business leaders have responded the automatic sector the healthcare sector the energy sector the IT sector All are investing in Pakistan and the promised grid investments Please I think I think one thing I would share also is that Pakistan is an incredibly open economy So if you the telecom minister is here, I think she can attest to the fact that every telecommunications company in Pakistan every mobile phone carrier is foreign owned or operated and That sense of openness in terms of sharing the economy is rare About half of our oil and gas our upstream oil and gas sector is also foreign owned and the large global multinationals operate in it I think in the emerging markets It's hard to find countries that are so open in the economy and that also combined with our 200 million person population Gives a great market to foreign companies and that's a message. We'd like to leave them with thank you very much Minister, I think you want to one thing that in the present world It's difficult not only difficult but impossible for governments alone to cope with the challenges Especially in social sector. So private public partnership is imperative and I think we are already I mean we can see the results of Global Fund and Gavi Alliance And I think this is a very successful model Which is a product of World Economic Forum? So we welcome, you know public private partnership in Pakistan So anybody who want to invest in Pakistan in any sector and I think this is the narrative of the present government Thank you very much Prime Minister Minister is dear panelists mindful of the time If there are no more questions from the floor at this point, I would close this press conference I would thank my panelists very very much Both for being here today in the press conference But also to being so strongly engaged with the World Economic Forum and here at this annual meeting Thank you very much and thank you for watching