July 8, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 7,1424

ISLAMABAD, July 7: The government has asked the State Bank, the CBR, Wapda, the KESC, the SECP, the PTCL and gas companies to extend all the required infrastructure facilities to the investors for promoting industrialization in the country.

“The State Bank and other six state sector organizations have been directed to reply in three days to the investors for offering the facilities like electricity, gas, telephone, water, etc.”, said Board of Investment chairman Waseem Haqqie.

Talking to Dawn here on Monday he said since it was difficult to offer ‘one window operation’, the government had also directed industries secretaries of all the four provinces to become a focal point for providing facilities to the investors.

He said the government had very well realized that without removing hurdles in the way of investors, there would not be any adequate investment and that this issue would get maximum attention during the fiscal 2003-04.

A special facilitation wing, he pointed out, had also been established in the BoI to receive various queries from the investors regarding their problems.

Responding to a question, Mr Haqqie said Privatization and Investment Minister Dr Hafeez Shaikh and he would visit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman and Qatar in September to attract investment in Pakistan. “Waleed Bin Tallal, one of the biggest investors in Saudi Arabia, is interested in investing in Pakistan,” he said, adding that a number of other investors of the Middle East were planning to invest in Pakistan and, “we will be finalizing various matters with them in this regard.”

Mr Haqqie said the first provincial investment conference would be held in August in Karachi. It will be followed by similar conferences in Peshawar, Quetta and Lahore by December this year. The purpose of these conferences, he said, would be to promote domestic investment by removing various bottlenecks being faced by the investors.

The BoI chairman said although $.1.4 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) target had been set for the fiscal 2003-04, there were chances for increased investment, specially after President Pervez Musharraf’s recent visit to the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

The President, he said, had been assured to have increased investment from these countries because of the improvement in investment climate in Pakistan. “We have identified oil and gas, telecommunications, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), infrastructure and tourism sectors, which can attract increased foreign investment during the current financial year,” Mr Haqqie said.

The focus of the government, he said, was on 15 countries, out of 183 members of the United Nations for attracting investment in Pakistan. In West, he said, the United States, the UK, Canada, France and Germany were being targeted, while in southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia were being given importance to have more investment. “Then Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE are very important in the Middle East for making new investment in our part of the world,” the BoI chairman said.

He said image of Pakistan was being improved in the world so that substantial foreign investment could be attracted in the country.