ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday launched Vision F.O. digital to ensure a vibrant and effective foreign policy to protect political and economic interest of Pakistan.

Addressing the launching ceremony in Islamabad, Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the launch of new website of the Foreign Office would help enhance accessibility and it will be more informative for the visitors. “It will be followed by another launch of mobile phone application “FM Direct”, which will connect officers of the Foreign Service to the foreign minister and the Foreign Office directly from any part of the world.” He said FM Direct will create an environment of meritocracy in the Foreign Office.

FM Qureshi said that Foreign Office had enlisted a secure and active video conferencing facility to connect with the key capitals of the world to get first hand and prompt knowledge of the developments taking place across the world.

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“We are going to restructuring, redesigning, and relocating Foreign Service Academy to provide state of the art training facilities to Pakistani as well as diplomats from across the region,” he said.

The minister stressed the need for optimum utilization of available tools and facilities in a more scientific way to upgrade foreign policy of the country. He said Pakistan was also going to launch FM Connect to engage with different stakeholders, including think-tanks, academia, and media persons for an effective foreign policy formulation.

“We are going to engage with seasoned, experienced, and retired diplomats under Foreign Minister Advisory Council to relate current challenges with their past experiments,” he said.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi said economic diplomacy had a vital role in attracting investments, enhancing country’s trade and exports with foreign countries. “For this purpose, we organized a two-day envoy’s conference titled Engage Africa and the next conference has been scheduled in Nairobi to promote political and economic interests of Pakistan,” he said.

He said the diplomatic corps should look into the Memorandums of Understanding and other agreements, Pakistan has signed with various countries, and devise a policy how they could be used for improving lives of common people.

Highlighting importance and contributions of Pakistani expatriates, the foreign minister said our envoys needed to tap the huge potential of Pakistani diaspora living in European and other countries.