LAHORE, April 28: Federal Minister for Privatization and Investment Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh on Thursday said that the Pak-Arab Fertilizer Ltd (PAFL), National Refinery Ltd and Carrier Telephone Industries (CTI) would be privatized during the next six months.

Talking to newsmen after addressing a conference on “Pakistan Economy”, at Lahore School of Economics (LSE), he said 15 per cent of United Bank Limited (UBL) would also be offered for sale through stock market in June this year.

He said PTCL and Pakistan State Oil would also be put under hammer by the end of June.

Sheikh said the proceeds of the privatization had contributed significantly to the retirement of foreign debt significantly and added that the country’s foreign debt had now come down to $35 billion from $38 billion.

He said that the government was introducing investment-friendly policies besides carrying out marketing activities at domestic and international levels to woo investment.

Earlier, speaking at the conference, the minister hoped that the country was likely to have investment of over $1 billion during the current fiscal year against previous year’s $950 million.

He said that there was need to provide space to new entrepreneurs in different sectors of the economy.

He said that the deregulation of the telecom sector had yielded very positive results with the entry of new players in this industry.

He said that problems in the infrastructure and utility sectors were obstructing investment in Pakistan.

He advocated for import of natural gas from different countries to meet the rising demand of this environment-friendly fuel.

He said that privatization through stock market had helped low and middle income groups to benefit from the privatization process.—APP