KARACHI, June 28: Acting President, Mohammadmian Soomro has invited local and foreign investors to invest in the country so that more jobs could be created.

Inaugurating the formal commissioning of Agro Oil Extraction Industries Limited, a project of Al-Raee Group of Saudi Arabia, at the Port Qasim on Saturday, he said that Pakistan has now become a role model for investors following improvement in the infrastructure facilities.

Investment of Saudi group in the country is a clear example that investors are keen to put their investment in Pakistan as it is a huge market.

“Infrastructure and investment friendly environment are further improving here,” he said assuring the investors all possible help in investing their capital in the country.

He said only those investors who had carefully evaluated market potential were reaping benefits of their investment.

Soomro urged the Al-Raee group to present a better picture among foreign investors so that more foreign investment could be attracted.

Later the acting president performed the formal commissioning of Rs250 million oil extraction plant.

Executive Director Operations, Gulf, Asia Pacific and the US of Al-Raee Group, Shahrukh Khan said that the project has the crushing capacity of 550 tons per day and use all kinds of traditional and non-traditional oil seeds in the country.

He said on the trial basis, the plant is crushing 450 tons per day and had extracted oil from 16,000 tons of oil seeds. The project would start full crushing capacity from July 1.

Al Raee Group’s investment is estimated at Rs175 million while the share paid capital is Rs75 million, he said.

He said that this is the largest oil extraction unit in the country which has started production in May this year. The plant will save $40 million annually to national exchequer.

The project would also deploy resources in the development of oil seed crops in Sindh including soyabean, canola and cotton seeds, besides providing technical assistance to growers and provide regular market for their produce, he said.

The country is importing 1.35 million tons of oil at a cost of Rs40.98 billion annually. The demand for oil is growing at the rate of 12 per cent while the government is earning Rs25 billion in duties and taxes annually.