May 01, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 24, 1429

ISLAMABAD, April 30: The United Arab Emirates will set up an oil refinery in Pakistan and would further invest by participating in privatisation of public sector entities.

This was stated by Ambassador of UAE in Pakistan Ali Mohammed Al Shamsi during a meeting with Federal Minister for Privatisation, Investment, Ports, Shipping, Industries and Production Syed Naveed Qamar on Tuesday.

The UAE envoy assured full support to further promote the private sector and his government’s investment in the fields of energy, petrochemical and real estate sectors.

In order to encourage farmers, the UAE was planning to establish an agriculture bank to improve quality of rice, wheat, vegetables and other farm products through financing, he added.

Naveed Qamar said that Pakistan provided tremendous investment opportunities to the investors in every sector of economy with liberal investment policies and unmatchable incentives in the region with a level-playing field.

He informed the envoy that the government was planning to sell a specific number of shares of Habib Bank Limited to the institutions through block sale, while expressions of interest have been invited for the sale of SME Bank.

“We are in the process of setting priorities for our privatisation programme, which would be announced soon,” he said.