governance and competitive investment climate making it more business friendly. improvement in governance should include among others a strong commitment to rule of law, competent and efficient government sector, less cumbersome regulations and control of corruption. the strengthening of the competitive investment climate would require, further development of markets, efficient nonfinancial factor markets particularly labor markets and availability of skilled labor, improve the infrastructure services, and the existence of strong legal, regulatory and institutional framework. sixth, it is critical that pakistan shares its gains equitably across regions and metropolitan cities to satellite towns and to rural areas where there is need for further strengthening of incentive framework, enhanced availability of credit, and rising non - farm employment opportunities. finally, the social transformation needs to occur side by side with the changes in the market place to further strengthen the demand for exiting and new products. people are better informed and have more choices in terms of goods and services.

power, petroleum and gas companies etc. in the next phase, close to 26 large transactions 5 including the remaining gas, power and petroleum companies and financial institutions are slated to be sold off. these structural reforms have precipitated a steady economic transformation across the board. first, scene in services sector is changing led by hype in financial services, telecommunication, trade and wholesale all of which have been growing at a fast pace. in financial services, growth in banking sector assets and profitability along with privatization together have attracted cumulative fdi flow of $ 11 billion over past five years. the current wave of bank mergers is anticipated to and gdrs is further going to attract additional $ 1 - 1. 5 billion including standard chartered bank ’ s merger with the largest mid - size bank i. e. union bank. telecommunication sector alone has attracted $ 2. 6 billion and its expansion ( with teledensity rate registering an increase from 3 % to more than 10 % in couple of years ) is triggering telecom revolution with six mobile service provider entering in market in less than couple of years that have today about 40 million cellular phone subscriber. exports of services sector have grown from negligible levels to over $ 300 million. this could be an underestimate as a study has pointed out that global it exports from pakistan could be $ 1 billion but a large chunk of export proceeds were retained in escrow accounts by several software houses. the prospects for this sector are bright and industry benefits from a combination of decade plus tax holidays, zero duties on computer inputs, incentives for venture capital, liberalization of wireless local loop and landline sectors etc. second, long time back pakistan achieved self sufficiency in wheat and other strategic products ; it is the world ’ s fourth largest producer of cotton which caters for local textile and clothing industry, while pakistan : growth and export competitiveness, world bank, 2006 ministry of finance : economic survey of pakistan, various editions trade liberalization, growth and poverty, ( spdc ) annual review 2005 - 06 privatization commission of pakistan feeding china and other regional competitors with cotton yarn and grey cloth. rice production of superior quality has boosted its exports that have crossed mark of $ 1 billion. dedicated policies to nurture non - crop sector to offer nonfarm employment is showing visible results as it now contributes about 53 % of agriculture value added relative to 43 % in early 1990s. pakistan is at present fifth largest producer of milk. these developments have helped raise rural