04 February 2005	Friday	24 Zilhaj 1425

KARACHI, Feb 3: Minister for Investment and Privatization Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said on Thursday that through privatization of government-owned entities the number of shareholders rose well over half a million from around 70,000 two year ago.

Similarly, the monetary benefit could be judged from the fact that the value of their shareholding increased by Rs25 billion. The minister was speaking at the conference "Trade and Investment Opportunities in Pakistan" organized by the EPB.

"There are strong signs of economic turnaround, which could also be verified from the fact that Direct Foreign Investment during this year rose by $1 billion from less than half a billion dollars," the minister added.

The privatization programme was going well and results are better than what was being anticipated, the minister said and added there was a time when only two bidders showed interest in the Pakistan Telecommunication Company but today there are as many as 14 international companies keen to enter the market.

Similarly, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said there was unprecedented interest being shown by foreign investors in National Refinery Ltd, and presently 29 top groups of the world are keen in its bidding.

Though privatization programme was going on for last 15 years and this indicates the bipartisan of successive governments which was upheld by each of them but during last couple of years the process gained momentum with higher interest being shown by foreign investors.

He said that 13 years back privatization proceeds stood at Rs6 billion later it rose to Rs12 billion but last year it made leap jump to Rs25 billion and this year it would be much higher.

As the government was privatizing the entities with an objective to benefit local people, he said two years ago there were only 70,000 shareholders in the country but with more offers to general public the number of shareholders now stands well over half a million with capitalization on these initial public offers increased by Rs25 billion.

Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that tomorrow (Friday, Feb 4), there will be final bidding for the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) which ushers well as the task of privatizing such utilities was much difficult.

However, he said the present government was committed to doing difficult jobs in the larger interest of the country. The government, he said, had opened up utility companies for the privatization aimed at benefiting general public and reducing government involvement in the commercial activities.

He said the government is moving fast in this direction, and ensures transparency as well as fairness and quality. He cited the keen interest being shown by general public towards privatization process and said that for PPL there was 780,000 over subscription which gave equal chance to every applicant. He said the present team at the top was committed but they should never think there will be no red-tapism which is a normal phenomenon in every developing country. With regard to infrastructure he said the government has taken a lot of measures to improve it.

He said arrangements and negotiations are under way for gas pipeline from Qatar and Iran to meet the rising need of the industry. Similarly, he said the government was focusing on hydel power and also involving private sector in power generation and distribution activities.

The fact that around 500 foreign guests were expected to visit Expo 2005 but today we see well over 1200 have come from over 60 countries of the world. He said this is a change as people have started to drive confidence and are no more fearful of terrorist activities which has become an issue for every country and not only for Pakistan.