Islamabad, May 6 (IANS): Pakistan needs to use the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as a platform to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) to enhance exports, the country's Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference here, Tarin said that his country needs to take effective measures to uplift the economy and attracting the FDI in the special economic zones being developed under the framework of the CPEC is one of the major goals of the government.

He said that the industrial cooperation with China in the second phase of the CPEC will not only create jobs, but also generate business opportunities, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The finance minister said that many countries enhanced their exports by attracting the FDI which not only brought in money and increased the volume of exports but also introduced new technology and novel ideas in the economy of the host countries, adding that Pakistan has to follow the same model to increase its exports.

Tarin said that the information technology sector is an important sector whose potential can be tapped and it can be a great player in increasing the size of the Pakistani economy in the future.