ISLAMABAD, April 22: The Board of Investment (BoI) is holding three major conferences in Hong Kong, London and Balochistan to attract foreign investment in the country.
"We are expecting to have $1 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) during 2003-04 but more efforts are being made to further attract sizable investment through the holding of three new international conferences", said BoI chairman Waseem Haqqie.
Talking to Dawn, he pointed out that FDI to the tune of $632 million came to Pakistan during the first nine months of 2003-04. He said that first international investment conference would be held in Hong Kong on April 26 in which key investors belonging to oil & gas sector, power, telecommunications, textiles and engineering were participating the moot.
Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali would inaugurate the conference to be also attended by 45 leading Pakistani businessmen. Later on May 8, Mr Haqqie informed, another investment conference would be held in Quetta to be also inaugurated by the prime minister. The focus of this conference, the BoI chairman pointed out, would be Gwadar as being the central flagship for the investors.
Similarly, a third international conference will be held in London on May 12 which will be inaugurated by Minister for Investment and Privatisation Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh. Responding to a question, Mr Haqqie said that during 2003-04, over 100 foreign delegations from all over the world visited Pakistan to explore the avenues of investment and entering into joint ventures with their local counterparts.
He said easing of tension with India and improving situation on Pakistan's western border, were helping to lure foreign investors as Pakistan today had become a viable destination for making new investment.
The BoI chairman said that there existed great potential for making investment in housing & construction, infrastructure, power, telecommunications and engineering industry. He said that investors from Middle East, Europe and the United States were particularly taking keen interest to invest in Pakistan and were making regular queries to the BoI.
Responding to another question, Mr Haqqie said that he had held a meeting with the businessmen in Karachi last week and told them that the government was trying to remove various irritants to promote business activities in the country.
He agreed that all was not well and that some of the problems of the investors needed to be resolved including to offer timely and inexpensive infrastructure facilities.
He said that the BoI was currently involved in making recommendations to further create an enabling environment to both local and foreign investors. He expressed hopes that a number of facilities were likely to be offered to the investors and businessmen in the next budget.
