August 6, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 7, 1424

ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: Privatization and Investment Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said on Tuesday that during the last three years Pakistan made a lot of progress and the government was determined to make the environment a business friendly, liberalized and deregulated.

The minister was talking to a nine-member trade delegation from Singapore and discussed possibilities of cooperation in mutually beneficial areas, including SMEs, information technology and agriculture.

The delegation headed by Dr Toh See Kiat, president of Singapore- Pakistan Development Forum, comprises business leaders of Singapore from various sectors, including agriculture, trade and SMEs. BoI chairman Waseem Haqqie, secretary Dr Agha Ghazanfar and senior BoI officials also attended the meeting.

Highlighting the salient features of investment policy in vogue, the minister remarked that the manufacturing as well as other sectors, including services, agriculture and social, were open for domestic as well as foreign investors.

“There is no restriction on the repatriation of the capital, profits and dividends. We are following a completely liberalized and deregulated market-led policy.”

BoI secretary Dr Agha Ghazanfar explained the role of BoI as investor facilitating body and assured maximum support to the Singaporean businessmen and investors.

The leader of the Singapore delegation discussed various ongoing projects, including a housing project at Karachi and construction of a conference hall at Rawalpindi.

He also offered the services of Singaporean consultants to Pakistan and pointed out that Singapore had allocated $1 million for consultancy purposes of the World Bank projects in South Asia.

The BoI chairman remarked that consultancy services of Singapore could be availed by the BoI to upgrade and prepare new feasibilities of various sectors in SMEs.

The delegation is on a five-day visit to Pakistan to explore the possibilities of business and joint ventures especially in small and medium enterprises.