Partnering with peace boosted Pakistan's tourism potential, says PM Imran at Davos.

Byline: Naveed Siddiqui

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday spoke at the Pakistan Strategy Dialogue at Davos, Switzerland, where he said Pakistan was considered one of the most dangerous places in the world when his government took over but that "we had decided to partner with peace".

"The first conflict, after the Soviets left Afghanistan, cost us heavily it left us with brittle roots and a culture of Kalashnikovs and drugs that were used to pay for the war [and] sectarian groups that did a lot of damage to society.

"Then there was the 'war on terror' which left 70,000 people dead. Pakistan was considered one of the most dangerous places in the world," the prime minister said.

"Therefore, when my government came into power we made a conscious decision to only partner with people in peace. We decided to not become part of any conflict.

Secondly, the legacy of the 80s, where we were left with these militant groups still operating in Pakistan, this was the first government that has now disarmed them and tried to rehabilitate them.

As a result of this, the PM said, the first benefit Pakistan saw was in the field of tourism.

"In terms of tourism, Pakistan is perhaps one of the most undiscovered countries in the world. It has one of the oldest civilisations, the Indus Valley [civilisation] which is 5,000 years old, and has sacred places for four religions," Imran said.

"We are one of the most tourism friendly countries and all this potential was untapped, especially the mountain areas," he said.

The first impact was that tourism recovered in a year, he said. Referring to Pakistan topping the list of tourist destinations in 2020, the prime minister said: "We believe Pakistan can collect a lot of revenue from tourism."

Read more: Pakistan tops Conde Nast Traveller's list of best 2020 holiday destinations

The second step was investment, said Imran, adding that the government is doing everything possible to attract investment and to give incentives to industries.

"In the 60s, Pakistan was one of the fastest growing countries in terms of industrialisation. Unfortunately, we lost our way in the 70s which hampered our industrial growth," he explained.

"Now the government is actively incentivising industries and investment, and has tried to remove all the hurdles in the way of investors."

Talking about the jump in Pakistan's Ease of Doing Business rankings, the prime minister said: "We have a long way to go but this is the direction in which the...

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