WASHINGTON, Oct 2: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali on Thursday urged American businessmen to invest in Pakistan.

“The existing state of our economy is characterized by a robust sense of stability and the return of investor confidence. The fiscal situation is particularly upbeat and the debt burden under control,” said the prime minister at a luncheon at the US Chamber of Commerce.

“All the key indicators have performed well,” he said while highlighting the improvement in macro-economic sector.

The policy environment, he said, for investment in Pakistan was extremely favourable as the government had removed “stifling controls on foreign investment and safety reforms have been guaranteed by law.”

Encouraging US investors, Mr Jamali told them that they could freely transfer funds from the country, including remittance of capital or profit.

Pakistan, he said, was offering lucrative incentives, such as special arrangement for a guaranteed return on investment in the oil and petroleum sector.

The prime minister, however, warned that some concerns about US trade policy mar an otherwise excellent commercial relationship. He said that through a number of free trade agreements and special programmes, the US had transformed the landscape for its international trade, in recent years.

“Large portions of imports enter the US under special trading arrangements. This leaves countries such as Pakistan at a severe disadvantage. The disadvantage comes not from the lack of competitive strength, but from US trade policy. This should be corrected.”