November 24, 2001	Saturday	Ramazan 8, 1422

ISLAMABAD, Nov 23: Pakistan will try to get EU insurance cover for western investors restored during Belgian prime minister’s visit.

“We will raise the issue of insurance cover with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt as the US Overseas Private Insurance Corporation (OPIC) has already restored this cover for American investors to invest in Pakistan,” said Minister for Finance Shaukat Aziz.

Talking to Dawn here on Friday, he said that some of the European countries had already restored this insurance cover to cap any political risk. For example, he said, that Hermes of Germany, COFAS of France and Sacha of Italy had restored insurance cover for their investors in Pakistan.

“But this is a very important issue and we would like to resolve it with the Belgian prime minister who is arriving here on Saturday morning,” Aziz said.

He expressed hopes that the insurance cover would be restored to help boost EU investment in the country. This insurance cover was withdrawn both by the US and EU in May 1998 when Pakistan went nuclear following India.

Accompanying Mr Verhofstadt is Romano Prodi, head of the European Commission which runs the EU’s day-to-day business and Pascal Lamy, the EU trade commissioner. They will have a “working meeting” with President Pervez Musharraf in which Ministers for finance, trade and Kashmir, States & Frontier region will also be present. Later, the Belgian prime minister will hold a joint news conference with President Musharraf and leave for Brussels the same day on Saturday.

The finance minister said that there had been a negative impact on Pakistani economy due to September 11 events. “And this is a good thing that US led coalition and our other bilateral partners do realize our financial and economic difficulties.”

“We will be discussing trade and economic issues with the Belgian prime minister whose country now holds the EU’s rotating presidency and we are hopeful that our concerns on various issues will be addressed,” the finance minister said.

He said that the restoration of insurance cover by the EU will greatly help in attracting new foreign investment including from non-European countries. Also the issue of getting increased market access to EU countries will be discussed.

Replying to a question, Aziz said that the political risk cover was necessary for Pakistan as it would also help businessmen to get a supplier credit as well to import machinery.

He said that restoration of OPIC cover for American investors had gone well as the government of Pakistan now expected considerable US investment for which US Exim Bank had made available 300 million dollar.

The finance minister regretted that there had been a marginal foreign investment in Pakistan during the last many years. “But we are dealing this issue in a different manner and are getting encouraging response,” he claimed.

The finance minister pointed out that remittances have gone up as the Pakistani banks abroad were now providing better service due to which overseas Pakistanis were preferring to send remittances through normal banking channels instead of infamous hundi.