agreement signed to form pakistan stock exchang

ISLAMABAD: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in Islamabad on Thursday to form Pakistan Stock Exchange, with the merger of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad stock exchanges.Speaking on the occasion, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar expressed the confidence that Pakistan will secure a new place in international capital markets with the emergence of one national stock exchange.He said Pakistan Stock Exchange will be made vibrant and competitive in the global financial markets.Dar added that Pakistan has a great potential to turn into a strong, stable and economically sovereign country.Highlighting the steps taken for revival of economy, he said the world financial institutions are also recognising stability in Pakistan’s economy.The finance minister went on to say that efforts will now be made to enhance growth rate to six to seven percent as envisioned in the medium term framework.He said special emphasis is also being given to the development sector and allocations for this purpose have been doubled in the last two years.The minister further said that the foreign exchange reserves are at a historic height and hovering between 18.50 to 18.75 billion dollars. He said efforts are afoot to enhance the reserves to over 20 billion dollars very soon.Regarding energy crisis, Dar was confident that 10,000 megawatt of electricity will be added to the grid by December, 2017.