January 17, 2003	Friday	Ziqa'ad 13, 1423

ISLAMABAD, Jan 16: Singapore has asked Pakistan to activate Singapore-Pakistan Development Forum to enhance bilateral trade and investment in Pakistan’s services sector.

A Singapore trade and investment delegation, which met Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan here on Thursday, showed its willingness to invest in communications, education, information technology and health sectors of Pakistan.

Head of the delegation, Toh See Kiat said the delegation members could provide consultancy services to Pakistani traders and businessmen for enhancing their trade and exports.

He asked the minister to allow and encourage Singaporean service providers to come to Pakistan to help transfer expertise and technology to Pakistan.

The leader of the delegation stressed the need to activate Singapore-Pakistan Development Forum and enhanced cooperation between the traders and exporters of the two countries.

The delegation also sought the help of commerce ministry in holding exhibitions of Pakistani goods in Singapore and requested to provide adequate infrastructure and incentives for attracting investors of Singapore.

The minister appreciated the resolve of the delegation members to invest in Pakistan and said his country wanted to attract foreign investment in education, health, oil & gas and telecommunication sectors.

He said the government would like to establish special export zones on the pattern of China, in order to attract foreign investment.

APP ADDS: Pakistan with its macro-economic fundamentals aligned to trade and investment coupled with strong political commitment at top levels, offers tremendous opportunities to foreign as well as local investors in various fields.

Prime minister’s adviser on investment Dr Hafeez Sheikh told the visiting 17-member Singapore delegation here at the Board of Investment on Thursday.

“Pakistan is second to none in the world in terms of investment opportunities and wherever you see you will find huge potential for investment,” he further observed.

Dr Hafeez said, Pakistan, a country of 140 million people, had very good infrastructure in telecommunication, communication network, roads, IT, financial services, banking, education and health facilities and other logistics in general.

He, however, stressed that there was a need to make the people in world know about these things and, adding, “you people (investors) can turn around these areas.”

The head of the delegation said Singapore companies were keen to invest in different fields, including human resource development, if they got some incentives.

Dr Kiat was of the view that the private sector involvement had become a vital element worldwide to achieve economic development and growth.

He informed the minister that Pakistan Trade Centre had been established in Singapore to help display the Pakistani products in that country.

BoI chairman Waseem Haqqie informed the delegation that Pakistan offers investment opportunities in various sectors like privatization, oil and gas, financial services etc, with the policies of de-regulation and liberalization on board.