LONDON (APP) - President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday urged the British based Pakistani origin business community to focus on increased public private partnership to generate greater economic activity and for furthering business links between the two countries. Talking to a group of top Pakistani-origin business community members here at his hotel, the President noted their role in building strong economic linkages between Pakistan and the United Kingdom and said more effort was needed for the mutual benefit of the two peoples. The President who is here on a three day working visit to the United Kingdom met Haji Zahid Yaqub Director National Halal Foods, Sir Anwar Pervez Chairman Bestway Holdings the UK, Kubair Ahmed Shirazee CEO Ikonami dealing in IT solutions, James Caan CEO of a private equity firm Hamilton Bredshaw and was amongst the 100 most influential Asians in UK, Shahid Azeem the award winning Director of Corporate Services of Surrey University and Arshad Chaudhry Chairman and Founder of Asian Business Development Network. The members of the Pakistani business community in their individual meetings with the President informed him of the problems that they were facing and suggested remedial measures. They urged him for steps to improve perceptions about Pakistan. They were also appreciative of the incentives by the government as all companies in Pakistan were doing a good business and making lots of profits. President Zardari assured that the government had announced a series of incentives for the investors. He said with the gradual recovery of economy Pakistan was making efforts to explore new international markets and remove barriers for investment and trade. He said despite the global financial crisis and energy shortfall, Pakistans GDP growth rate was in a positive territory and was growing. He said in terms of Rupees Pakistans exports increased by 22 percent. He said the government hoped to attract US 10 billion dollars of Foreign Direct Investment by the end of 2009. The President said the Moodys Investors Service has also upgraded Pakistans rating from B3 negative outlook to B3 with stable outlook. He however said that Pakistans credit rating was still lower than that for other economies in the region. The President said the country would do legislation for data protection to encourage e-banking. He also urged the Pakistani business community to host a Pakistan festival next year on the sidelines of Pakistan cricket team playing home series at Hadingly and said it would be a great opportunity to attract more investment.